Redemption

Present:Redemit

I sit there, my throat feeling rough, my eyes burning, and Vine held close to my chest as we both give each other what comfort we can. "At that point, we took samples of the swarm queen, then pulled back. I was quarantined for awhile as they tried to figure out what happened. I think they finally decided that the infester I got hit with was an early one that was supposed to just use the existing brain to enact its will and thoughts, while the body of the infester would serve as ready fuel for the initial infection. Either that, or I just got one that was really weak and it had to make do," I state, my eyes closed as I rub my face against the top of Vines head, tears running down my cheeks silently.

"After they figured out I was a stable source of information, meaning I wasn't trying to kill everypony in sight, they started trying to learn as much as possible, attacks had started happening everywhere, and ponies were getting desperate, the next couple of weeks were . . . not pleasant, although they learned not to threaten Vine after I tore through some 2 inch steel bars to nail one idiot guard up by his pauldrons. In my defense, I was really angry, and even his buddies thought it was funny several weeks later," I say, chuckling towards the end.

"Wow," Dash says, most of the Elements sit in place either too stunned to speak or otherwise incapacitated, their eyes the size of dinner plates right now.

"That's . . . I'm really sorry you had to go through something like that, nobody should have to experience those things!" Twilight states, her own eyes doing a decent job of bugging out at me. Several scrolls lay beside her that she filled out as I recounted my experiences.

I open my mouth to reply, and feel myself glomped by something yellow and fluffy with a hint of pink thrown in. "You poor guy!" A sobbing Element of Kindness hugs my neck as she hangs onto me from behind(I'd later come to learn her name was Fluttershy.) I smile slightly at the warm contact before leaning my head back to rub against the side of her own as she cries. "Hey now, I survived, not many can claim the same, what I lived through was tough, yes, but I'd do it again to appreciate a laugh, to smile, to know and share love with those around me, it was worth every moment," I say as I'm rubbing against her, my arms and wings still wrapped around a quietly sobbing Vine, the recollection probably getting to her.

"Okay, that just ain't natural," is Applejack's take on the situation, prompting me to start laughing so hard it hurts, even though I'm not really sure what she's calling unnatural. Whether it be me, my history, or even the normally shy pony just hanging off a human/changeling/whatever hybrid.

After I'm done laughing my head off, I look at the Elements around me, reaching up to wipe a tear off my eye, only to see them staring at me goggle eyed from my laughing. I have to suppress another bout of laughing, managing a loud snicker in its place. Raising a hand, I wave it at them apologetically before I scratch behind Fluttershy's ears for a bit so she calms down enough to where I can pull her around and set her near me, hugging her lightly before I let her go and loose my hold on Vine allowing the two of them to meet and greet as it were.

"So, you're a hybrid between a changeling, known as a swarmling on your world, and a human?" Twilight opens the ball.

"Actually, my genetics are even more wildly divergent than that, my 'pack' for lack of a better term was designed as a test, they were all bred for intelligence, combat capability, as well as obedience, as if that's somehow not a contradiction in terms, and even had some aspects 'enhanced' in the womb. We were then paired off with random families to be observed as we grew up in said environment, it's why my teeth are more pronounced, designed to actually rend and tear meat rather than the rather flat equivalent you find most humans with. I was supposed to be left with my 'family' and genetic samples taken for a second generation, but they ended up having to move the experiment forward with the first generation, never found out why. Given the choice between handing me to a government handler, or signing up in the Guard, Vine here chose to sign up as a 'dangerous animal handler', apparently, the pay was alright, and as she put it, I was always her little wolf, I still want one of those by the way, so yeah," is my long winded reply. I watch as she continues to scribble on her parchment.

"How many swarmlings have you killed?" Dash asks from the ceiling.

Glancing up at her with a wry chuckle, I reply, "Before I stopped counting, I was over 4,000 swarmlings, I assisted with the termination of at least 20 brutes, and I hadn't ever had an opportunity to face a swarm queen after that day until I made a rather abrupt entry into your capital city." Grimacing, I continue, "And as for the subject of infested, I will not speak of it out of respect for the good ponies, humans, and other species they were," I say.

"Why did ya decide to crash inta the capital?" Applejack pipes up.

"The gateway was designed to send us to this world, we'd set up an 'anchor point' that was supposed to attract anypony or anything using the portal like iron to a lodestone. The only problem arises if you send too much mass at once, such as a fully grown swarm queen masquerading as a dragon, at which point we phase in in the same general vicinity, namely the same continent, but where exactly is a game of dragon baiting, where you run the chance of finding an underground cavity with no exit, or end up in a volcano, I want to go see one of those at some point too, by the way," I answer, then look up at the clock. "When's lunch, anyway? I'm getting kinda hungry," I ask. As if on cue, there's a knock on the door, which leaves me scrambling to throw my helmet on before the door opens and in walks Nurse Redheart.

Standing up and dropping Vine in my place with a squawk and a punch to the shoulder on her part, I move over to Redheart as she stares at all the various ponies in the room.

"Nurse Redheart! My favorite pony in the general vicinity at this point in time!" I cheer, causing a round of chuckles and her to grin back at me, being used to my odd humor at this point. "So, what's for lunch?" I ask, eyeing the cart.

"Get back in your bed like a good patient and you'll find out," She ripostes, causing me to hold my hand over my heart and wince. "Awww, come on Nurse, I'm huuuungry," I whine, moving back towards my bed, sitting down on the opposite side from the two pegusai, one of whom is still giving me an evil look, to which I can only grin.

Bringing the cart over, and avoiding Twilight and Applejack in the process of navigating the now rather crowded room, she sets the cart by my bed and points out which plates belong to whom, before leaving the rather crowded room. I thank her with a smile as she leaves and then I grab my table, passing it to Vine, I pass over her dishes first, then turn to my own food. Lifting the lid, I find another mixed salad of green things that I generally try to ignore as I shovel them in and on the side sits something that causes me to freeze as I stare at it in wonder, my mouth starting to water already.

"Vine?" I ask in a strangled voice, causing her to turn and look at me, following my gaze, she sees it as well and gasps.

Everypony else in the room stares at my plate in a mild state of confusion.

"What? Something wrong with your salad? Or the apple?" A confused Twilight asks.

I slowly reach out and pick up the beautifully red object, examining to be sure its real, and not some kind of joke, which honestly I'd find really funny, but Vine would probably hurt somepony. Turning the apple over in my hands, I can only shake my head. "Right, no swarm, they've got all the farm land they need," I say in a bemused tone, still turning the apple over, before I grasp it in both hands and break it in roughly equal pieces, passing one over to Vine as I raise the other to my mouth, taking a small bite and smiling as I taste the sugary goodness.

"Huh? What do ya mean?" Applejack asks, scratching her head.

"We were losing, it's why we tried to run to your world. By the end we lost most of the land excepting a mountain range's peaks and Cloudsdale. We surrounded the city with a storm so violent not even ground travel was possible. With a mountain beneath us, we were relatively safe from below, but all our food had to be grown in a garden setting, with magical lighting to boot, so we didn't have enough ground or energy to 'waste' on fruit bearing trees," I reply, continuing to savor the red treat one nibble at a time.

"Well shoot, we got acres of apple trees, you should come by some time and try some of our fin-" Applejack starts but stops as both Vine and I swivel to lock onto her with both our eyes doing a decent job of bugging out.

"Acres?" Vine asks in a strangled voice, I'm too busy hanging my mouth open to throw in my own question.

"You poor thing," Fluttershy says, grasping Vine close in a tear streaked hug, prompting Vine to pat her back uncomfortably and look at me pleadingly. I just grin before popping the last bit of apple in my mouth and reaching out to wrap my arms and wings about the two of them. So cute!

"We're going to take you up on that, Applejack, I'd dearly love to get some more of these, most of the ones we saw were half dried, even with preservation spells. Hey, with that much room available, I bet we could start you another garden, Vine!" I grin down at her, prompting her to grin right back.

"Wait, a pegasus that likes to grow things?" Applejack pops in, seeming to catch sight of Vine's cutie mark for the first time. I just release the two pegusai and lie back on my bed, watching Vine stumble her way through this one.

"Hey! Just because I have wings doesn't mean I can't enjoy things from the ground too," she responds. Surprisingly, Fluttershy gives a quiet sound of agreement, causing me to sit up and look at her more closely, her cutie mark consists of three butterflies, but doesn't really tell me much about her.

"Hey Fluttershy?" I ask, causing her to make an adorable eep sound as she turns to look at me.

I resist dawing at her adorable shyness and instead ask. "Hey, what do you do for a living if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh. I uh . . . I work with animals. Patching them up and making sure they're doing okay," she replies in a super quiet voice, I resist the urge to squee again and settle for rubbing her ear real quick before I decide to sate my curiosity more fully. Looking over at Rarity, who's been quietly chatting with Applejack and Twilight.”Miss Rarity, what's you job, if you don't mind me asking?”

She perks up and gives me a smile before espousing upon her job. Apparently, she's a fashionista that loves to make clothing, she makes an abortive foray about fashion from my world, but I just smile and shake my head. "Ma'am, I barely got out of the barracks when not on duty. My idea of fashion is to throw whatever clothes-like objects I was issued for non-duty use on and walk around either training or talking with other off-duty guards, with the occasional bout of being shown off to one powerful individual or another."

This causes Rarity to pout and then brighten up as she speaks about bringing me up to speed on fashion, something that fills me with a certain amount of dread, but hey, I'll give it a try. "Okay, but if ribbons become involved," I give Vine a dirty look. "I'm gone," I state, causing Rarity to cover her mouth with a hoof and giggle, staring at Vine curiously.

Glancing up at Rainbow Dash, I open my mouth. "Hey, Wonderwings, what's your job?" I ask, causing her to facehoof at the terrible name as everypony in the room snickers.

"I'm a weather manager," She replies, I just stare up at her blankly until she elaborates. "I handle the weather setup for Ponyville?" I nod my head at her response, then scrunch up my face.

"What's Ponyville?" I ask.

Twilight pipes up. "It's the town you're in right now," She states. "We're about 8 hours from Canterlot by train," She elaborates in a manner very similar to some of my old instructors. I think I may ask her about my literacy problem later, she'd probably be able to help.

"Alright, I take it you teach then, ma'am?" I ask Twilight, this causes everypony to bust out laughing, except myself, Vine and Fluttershy. Although, in Fluttershy's, case, she was wearing a small smile. So cute!

"No, I'm the town librarian, and Princess Celestia's protege," She states with a justified amount of pride.

I nod my head, turning to see Pinkie Pie making odd faces but otherwise being completely silent, which I think is VERY out of character for her, if our first encounter in the woods was any indication. I make a mental note to apologize to her later, and ask her the same question. "So what do you do Pinkie?" I ask.

She looks at me and just grins reaaaally big. I feel a slight sweat break out as she opens her mouth. My feelings of dread are warranted when she starts in on a long spiel about parties, and a house of confectioneries.

"Wait, what? You work at a business that makes sugary treats?" I ask, mouth already starting to water.

She nods her head enthusiastically, bouncing in place.

"I really want to visit your business now," I state raising my helmet to stare at it some more. Darn visual effects. "I need to find somepony that can alter this, or maybe make some other armor to hide my identity or . . ." I trail off as I start to think, I then turn to Twilight, a plan taking hold in my mind.

"Hey Twilight, what's the current laws on humans being in inhabited areas?" I ask, she just blinks at me. I open my mouth and try to rephrase the question. "Are humans allowed in town?" I try again.

She nods. "Sure, plenty of ponies keep them and use them for menial labor or keep them as pets," She replies, tilting her head. "But you won't exactly blend in with them with those wings," She says after a slight pause.

I nod my head. "Well, if I can get a hold of some local anesthetics, I can remedy that. It'll be more effective than walking around in my armor all the time, although, I'd need to talk to whomever my superiors are to get permission first," I pause for a second as I consider the possible repercussions, and decide on a course of action. "Hey Twilight, you're going to be sending a copy of our conversation to the princess, right?" I ask.

Twilight nods her head enthusiastically. "Yes, I'm sure they'll be so interested in hearing about you, imagine how they'll react to all this!" She's practically bouncing in place, prompting me too look at Pinkie for a second, Pinkie to her credit just giggles.

Shaking my head for a second. I look at Twilight again. "Alright, think you could send a letter at the same time, give her my idea? It's not the most pleasant experience, but if I just take the wings off, it should be easily managed, and it'd allow me to blend back in," I state, then smirk. "Heck, Vine here could be my handler, not like she hasn't been before, huh?" I flippantly state, nudging Vine who just rolls her eyes before going back to talking quietly with Fluttershy.

Twilight nods her head and starts writing furiously. Rainbow Dash asks the obvious questions. "Why would you need a local anesthetic to transform? I thought changelings just needed love to transform," She asks, reasonable question.

I nod my head. "Regular changelings, yes. But the ones we ended up dealing with had experimented with dark magic and certain mutagenic plants, or so we think, Whatever they did, they twisted their biology up ALOT. Most of them no longer seemed to even require love by the end, as indicated by their massive population and the fact they stopped taking prisoners. But, they also traded away most of their intelligence and individuality to do it, another sign was their transformative magics. Depending on the power of the swarmling in question, they didn't even exhibit the standard green fire when they shifted, but instead their form just liquidated and shifted as needed, but it also involved massive amounts of pain, as I can attest," I reply

"Most humans won't tolerate being close ta changelings, even in disguise, how will they react ta your presence?" Applejack pipes up, causing me to cock my head to the side.

"As long as I'm not doing anything too overt, like using any of...my abilities, I won't attract their attention or ire, Most of the time though, I have to deal with any betas taking my mere presence as a threat to their power," I state in reply.

Applejack tilts her head in confusion. "Don't ya mean alphas?" She asks, to which I shake my head.

"If their owners handle them right, the pony they follow is the alpha. The human that leads the group is the beta, at least, in my experience it is so," I reply.

Rarity looks a little pale, and is staring at me with a certain amount of nervousness, prompting me to look at her and tilt me head to the side. "You okay, Ma'am?"

She twitches but responds, "Perfectly fine, darling."

I give her a deadpan look. "Would you like to try that again, Ma'am?" I ask.

She nods her head sheepishly. "Do you have to consume emotions, like a changeling?" She asks, the room going still and quiet as everypony hangs on my words.

Vine Bloom shifts over to me, and I reciprocate by gladly wrapping my arms around her as I consider the ceiling for a moment.

"I'm afraid I do, Ma'am. It's not something I'm proud of, but I also don't 'require' them for survival. If I run low, I get a semi-constant stomach ache, and I move a lot slower. But that being said, unless I'm using my abilities on a regular basis, the love Vine holds for me naturally keeps me running just fine. So nobody here has to worry about me taking something you won't willingly give, plus it doesn't harm Vine so long as I just let her naturally feed me, rather than sucking on it like some kind of vampony," I finally state, watching them with an even expression, my eyes shuttered and cold as I await the reaction.

I'm sadly not disappointed, as the room dissolves in a fracas at that point. Rarity indulges in an over-enthusiastic fainting spell. Applejack is more undecided, I feel a growing sense of respect for the stolid farmer pony. Rainbow Dash is looking at me with an odd look in her eyes, kind of creeping me out. Twilight is writing so fast I'm not sure how her parchment isn't on fire. Fluttershy seems torn between hiding under the bed or trying to comfort me, which is somehow still so darn cute. Surprisingly, Pinkie is sitting there bouncing and staring up at me with her signature smile.

"Enough!" Vine finally shouts out. Everypony in the room quickly stops whatever they are doing, with the exception of Rarity, who is weakly blinking at the ceiling as she comes back to consciousness. "He's told you he doesn't take anything you don't freely give, and he meant it. Stop acting like a bunch of immature fillies! I can keep him well fed, and what gives you the right to judge him, huh? Do you know what he's done, what we've both had to do to survive?!" I tighten my arms around her as she slowly rises, wings unfurling.

"Enough Vine," I say, pulling her into my chest.

"No! They don't have the ri-" She starts, but I cut her off.

"They have every right!" I retort. "We live upon the goodwill of this reality's residents. We know the thing we've done, can you honestly say we deserve respect after doing those things?" I ask, staring down at her.

She stares up at me, tears running down her cheeks, her mouth opening and closing but no sound issuing forth. Finally she lays her head on my chest and start quietly crying. I sigh and enfold her in my wings, glancing up at the assembled elements, most of whom look either ashamed or confused.

"Your princess is aware of my . . . traits. She saw fit to entrust me and Vine to your care, I assume her trust was not misplaced?" I ask solemnly. To their credit, most everypony in the room immediately relaxes, with the exception of Rarity and Fluttershy. Rarity I think because she just loves a good drama fest, and Fluttershy because anything more active than a light conversation is going to drive her nuts anyway.

"Anypony the Princess sees fit to trust is alright in ma' book," Applejack speaks out, earning a nod of thanks from me.

"Of course we don't think you'll do anything unpleasant, darling," A still slightly flustered Rarity adds, I resist the urge to roll my eyes.

"Dude! That. Is. AWESOME!" Rainbow Dash finally pipes up, everypony in the room looks at her in confusion, myself and Vine included.

"I think he's okay, too" Fluttershy mumbles, I can only nod as I continue to stare up at Rainbow Dash bemusedly.

Sensing all eyes upon her, Rainbow Dash fidgets a bit before elaborating. "Oh come on! He can use magic and fly, can absorb emotions to change his form, admittedly that hurts, a lot, but he's also really skilled with weapons and has enough loyalty to use the Element of Loyalty, how can he NOT be awesome?" She finally speaks out. I find myself humming happily.

...

After discussing the subject a bit more, and my solemn promise to not go soul sucker on anypony without their express consent, and then maybe not even then, the subject gets onto my possible disguises.

"So, could you take the form of a pony?" Twilight asks, I nod my head.

"Sure, at least, theoretically" I reply, she furrow her brow.

"Why? Haven't you tried before?" She asks, her quill poised to record my answer.

"No, not really, even adding wings and the supporting muscles was excruciatingly painful, a full body transformation would probably kill me, pain killers or no," is my response, causing everypony to give simultaneous shudders. I should probably avoid the K-word from now on. Discussing creatures they never saw that were dangerous animals is apparently one thing, but the death of a sentient is another. Oh, how I envy them their world outlook.

"How bad did growing those wings hurt?" Rainbow Dash pops up.

"Have you ever pulled a muscle or broken a bone?" I ask her, she nods to both. "Imagine that in every part of the new appendages, and most of your back as well, there is no quiet place in your mind to hide from the pain, it fills every part of you," I reply, causing her to grimace and nod. "To a certain extent, rage or the high you experience in battle can help you power through the pain, and it stops the moment you stop transforming, but it's not easy, and you have to deal with a subconscious aversion to the transformation the more pain and times you undergo a change," I elaborate thoughtfully.

"Can you do magic?" Twilight asked.

"Yes and no. I don't seem to gather magic on my own, so I require a thaumatic storage device of some sort, such as the crystals embedded in my armor. But once I have something like that, where most ponies rely on runes or other props to direct the energy, I can pull and shape it to a certain extent. Now, outright enchants are beyond me without the use of specific runes, and I can't project my power, however, combining magic with my hyperactive scar tissues means I can heal ridiculously fast even under battlefield conditions," I reply, my long-winded reply leaving her writing furiously for a few moments.

"How strong are you?" Applejack pops in, making me pause and consider a moment.

"Well, endurance wise, as long as I have a steady supply of magic, I'm good for about a days time under constant combat conditions. Now, straight out power? Ummm, I can use a five foot sword with one hand, and I found very few ponies that could compete in a straight contest of strength, my vertical build alters my center of balance though," I answer, not having a good way to properly answer her. My response, while rather vague, leaves her looking suitably impressed nonetheless.

"Do you like cake?" Pinkie pie suddenly pops up, this time thankfully from a position that doesn't totally disregard physics.

"Umm, heck yes?" I respond, mouth already watering.

"Ooooo, do you like parties?" She asks again, her grin getting bigger.

I shrug. "Not sure, never been to one," I reply, causing her jaw to drop as she undergoes that weird transformation again, right in front of me. Her hair loses its puffiness and her entire body just seems to turn a little greyer. "Okay, I have no idea how you do that, but you should consider keeping the hair style, it's got a definite scary vibe going on," I state, my brow furrowed slightly as I consider her.

"....never?" She asks in a small voice, causing me to shake my head solemnly.

"We didn't really have much reason to celebrate something, I was rather a freak, and while I had comrades, friends were few and far between. While I would congratulate Vine here on her birthday, she eventually told me to stop doing it. Something about reminding her I was getting rather old," I reply, causing everyone in the room to stop and stare at me.

"Oh, oh dear. How old are you?" Fluttershy suddenly asks.

"Biologically, I'm about 12 years old, subjectively, three to four and a half. I got most of my social skills from the infester, it's the reason I can talk so fluently," I reply, causing the room to turn silent as I roll my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I may only live another two years tops. But then, I'm part CHANGELING, or swarmling depending, those suckers don't have a set lifetime as I recall, I'm waiting to see how stuff turns out before I turn all mopey about it. Besides, I always feel at the top of my game, no joint pain, no dizzy spells, none of the standard sign of aging," I interject, trying to raise the mood.

"How divergent is your biology?" Twilight breaks in, her curiosity provoked.

"Well, for a start, I doubt I could have kids with another human, even assuming the thought didn't fill me with a certain amount of revulsion," I reply, causing her to blink a few times. I roll my eyes, she's a smart mare, she can figure that one out.

"What about other changelings?" Rainbow asks, I just stare up at her incredulously a moment before shrugging.

"Not a clue, no, I won't be testing ANYTHING, in fact, lets discuss something else!" I reply, this subject making me INTENSELY uncomfortable.

Glancing around the room, I remember another thing I'd been meaning to ask. "Say, Twilight, any idea how soon I can leave this place? I'm okay with staying here as long as necessary, but I'm starting to get a little bit of cabin fever here, I'd like to visit a track or something, I can feel my muscles atrophying here!" I say in a slightly whiny voice, causing her to giggle at my antics.

"Well, you can get out at any time, but it might be a good idea to find out if you can do your idea for a disguise, at which point finding you lodging would be a lot simpler," She states reasonably, causing me to nod my head appreciatively.

"Makes sense, but when we get out, Vine and I have a date with a track, I feel the very powerful urge to stretch my legs," I quip, poking Vine in the ribs playfully as she rests comfortably in my wing cocoon, earning myself a squeak and a hoof to the face. Laughing, I rub my cheek. Glancing around, I blink as everyone stares at us in surprise. "What?" I ask, looking around.

"Dude, she just clocked you so hard I think they heard that next door, and you barely flinched," Rainbow finally splutters.

I shrug. "We play fight all the time. I'm not a 'gentle' human, I was bred for harsher environments, and trained to fight, no offense, but she hits much harder on the training mat, heck, she's one of the only ones willing to spar with me. Most of the Night Guard was afraid I'd hurt them or something," Glancing around, I smile slightly as most everyone nods and relaxes, turning back to Rainbow, I find myself involuntarily flinching as she ends up RIGHT IN MY FACE!

"Duuude, you know to fight hoof to hoof?" she asks Vine who's currently nestled into my wings, with just her head popping out over them. To her credit Vine didn't even flinch at her close proximity.

"Yep, mandatory training for all Night Guard, and having the big guy to spar with really helps build muscle," she responds, planting an elbow in my stomach playfully, causing me to whoof as my breath is forcibly expelled.

Glaring down at her, I chuckle breathlessly, before I pin her forelegs to her chest with one hand and start poking her under her wing with my other hand, causing her to start squirming and twitching as I continue my assault, eventually forcing a giggle out of her. "Uh-huh, and you're not too much of a slouch yourself, Alpha. Although, I still know your weak points," I snark as she starts to squeal with laughter. Most of the ponies in the room snicker or smile. Glancing up at Rainbow Dash, I raise an eyebrow at her, causing her to start, before she returns to her slow orbit of the room.

Eventually, Vine grows tired of laughing and starts nodding her head rapidly, I stop poking her, and just wrap her in my arms as she sits there panting, before rolling her head up at me to give me a big grin that promises retribution later, causing me to chuckle. "You win this time, big guy," She states, holding up a hoof for me to brohoof. Chuckling, I bring my own fist up and tap her hoof, before I feel a massive yawn cracking my jaws wide open.

As soon as I can open my eyes, I find most everyone else in the room following my example. "Well dang, how long have we been at this, anyway?" I ask, glancing up at the clock. "Huh, 7:00, I assume some of you have siblings or other responsibilities to take care of?" I ask the assembled ponies as they take stock as well.

"Hate ta cut this short, but ah need ta check on Applebloom,"Applejack states, rising and stretching.

"I need to get home, before Sweetie Belle worries for me," Rarity adds doing a slightly more ladylike stretch.

"Oh, oh dear, I need to go check on Angel, he probably needs my help right now," Fluttershy adds as she does her own dastardly cute version of a yawn, I can't help but smirk slightly.

"I'll go ahead and take this home to draw up my report for the princesses, oh this is so exciting!" Twilight gushes as she packs her stuff away. I just shake my head.

"I should go check on the preparations for tonight's rainstorm, then I might as well get to bed myself," Dash states with a big yawn of her own.

"I don't really have anywhere to be so I could stick around and we could totally talk about cakes and cupcakes and pastries and sugar and hyper kittens!" A bouncing Pinkie Pie finally busts out, poor mare, all that time NOT being hyperactive probably has her rather bent out of shape. I can only shake my head and laugh.

"Alright, alright, but first things first. Cherries or bananas?" I ask, deciding I like the thought of a little chaos.

"Oooo, that's a tough one! Cherries are good in cakes! But bananas make the best bread!" She responds, tapping a hoof to her chin thoughtfully, never ceasing in her continuous stationary bouncing.

"Eh, I liked bananas by themselves, it was hard enough to get them without diluting their awesomeness," I retort, causing her to tear up.

"You poor guy! I am totally bringing a triple decker cake loaded with EVERYTHING by here some time!" She spouts, her grin reaching epic proportions of creepy.

"Eh, save it for the party I know you're gonna throw me," I sigh as I shake my head. She just stares at me in awe.

"How'd you know?" She finally sputters. Hah!

"I didn't, but hey, I wanted one either way, they sound fun!" I reply, causing her to giggle in return before she says her goodbyes and bounces out the door after everypony else.

After the room clears out finally, I yawn again before rocking backwards. Vine still grasped to my chest, I lay back on my bed. "Well, what'd I tell you, lots of fun."

She nods sleepily before laying her head down on my chest and quickly falling asleep. I contemplate shifting her to her bed, but decide it's just not worth the added effort. Rolling onto my side and shifting my bottom-most wing out of the way behind me, I drape my other wing across her as a sheet, close my own eyes, and drift off to sleep.