Waking up in Equestria

It was a few more days before I could move around well enough to venture past the bathroom down the hall of my room. Between Fluttershy and Scootaloo, I was never alone and my needs were taken care of well. Granny Smith sent up meals regularly when I got my appetite back consisting of cooked carrots, corn, apple sauce and even a few slices of delicious apple pie. I ate slowly at first, then ravenously each time food appeared. Scootaloo was eager to inspect the two growing lumps under the skin of my back regularly, she was fascinated by them.

"What color do ya think they're gonna be?" she asked me.

"Heh.. I hadn't though about it." I really hadn't. I was still uneasy thinking about what was going on back there and tried to ignore it as much as possible.

The pain was getting worse every day. It was a slow, inexorable pressure that pushed against my ribcage and tightened the skin. Twilight Sparkle had brought me some roots from the zebra in the Everfree forest, the same one who had found and saved Apple Bloom. She instructed me to bite off a small piece and chew it slowly when the pain got bad. It tasted horrible, but numbed the pain fantastically.

"I'm gonna kick your no-tail having butt if you can fly better than me! That would be so UNFAIR!" she flopped down next to me on the bed in mock anguish.

"Well... if I can, then I can give you rides!" I tried to sound enthusiastic.

"Bah! Once you've flown with Rainbow Dash, you've flown with the best!"

"How do you know? I might be even faster than her!" I chided, giving her a light bump on her flank with my hand.

Neither of us had talked seriously about what had happened in Cloudsdale or after. She was going to sleep in Apple Bloom's room, but I always found her by my side dozing in the mornings when I woke up. I wasn't feeling well enough for any physical affection yet I was glad to have her with me on some other level. I won't say it was as something cheesy as emotional support and companionship... but it was in the vicinity.

We laid next to each other while reading books that she and Twilight had brought me. Scootaloo's were small romance and action novels, usually with a rough and ready stallion taking on an evil genius, getting the girl in the process. She also brought me a book about a mare named Daring Do that was like reading an Indiana Jones book but with a pony instead. Twilight's were studious reads about the history of Equestria that I avoided completely.

She also taught me how to play a card game named Tail Card. It was similar to Go Fish but had a few extra rules and she beat me handily game after game with glee, boasting and doing a twirl of victory each time. I suspected secretly she changed the rules at will, but I was happy to see her enjoying herself and didn't call her on it. Scootaloo helped me get out of bed, pressing against my lower back with her head so I didn't have to strain too much and helped me ease back down into the pillows once I'd returned... and of course, we kissed a lot. We always seemed to be in contact each other in some fashion, either by a leg, hoof, arm or tail touching.

In short, she was wonderful. I was never happier to have someone... somepony with me.

The visits from Twilight Sparkle and Spike were like clockwork. She would appear with a bag of instruments and a book twice a day to inspect my back. Laying on my stomach awkwardly so as to not lay on my still injured arm, she would use her horn to manipulate various items around the bumps growing there, calling out numbers to Spike who jotted them down in the book. Then... the questions.

"Would you say the pain is worse, better or the same as the last visit?"

"Worse"

"On a scale of one to five, five being the biggest, how much would you say the pain has increased?"

"Two"

"Do you feel any tingling or random bursts of thoughts that aren't your own?"

"What?"

I knew she meant well.

____________________________________

I had just managed to walk downstairs for the first time in days to get my own cup of water and returned. The lumps had grown incredibly sensitive now. Twilight had remarked on her last visit that she could see the bony structure under the skin. I was chewing the root she had given me almost constantly and needed to ask her for more soon. It was late afternoon and we had spent the day reading again, this time with Apple Bloom. It was actually my idea to invite her to hang out with us because both Scootaloo and I had noticed she had been quiet and distracted lately. She did for a while, but then complained about her leg and said she needed to get into a different position in her bed. Dragging her stump, she had left.

I was just getting back into bed with her help when Scootaloo broached the subject we both had been passively avoiding.

"Mason?" she asked after getting me settled back against the pillows.

"What's up?"

"I'm real sorry about my dad." she looked ashamed and wasn't meeting my eyes. I wondered where this was coming from.

"Scoot! It's not your fault, come on... you know that."

"No... I mean it. None of this would've ever happened if I wasn't being such a stupid filly that night."

"What do you mean? How were you stupid?"

"I never shoulda came to your room. I shoulda just dealt with it like I always did and then you wouldn't be here like this."

"Scoot... you didn't know..."

"But I DID! My father's just a big ol JERK and I shouldn't have let him get to me like that."

"You couldn't keep dealing with that all by yourself."

"Yeah I could've, how would you know?"

And there it was. I realized I hadn't told her about my father at all... it just never came up. She didn't know how close to home her home life had hit for me. I looked down at my one good hand in my lap, feeling stupid for not sharing something like this with her earlier.

"I know because my dad hurt my mom... and me." I said without meeting her eyes.

"Huh?" she asked "You never told me that! Hurt like...how?"

"He would hit us..." Scootaloo didn't say anything so I continued. "My mom would get hit if she didn't make the bed right, or if his coffee was a little to hot in the morning. She would cry... but not around him. One time, I tried to get him to stop when I got older. I remember waking up on the floor..."

"Stop... Mason...you don't have to tell me this"

"I do know what it's like to live scared... and to be scared to talk about it... You aren't the only one who had a bad father..."

She considered this for a moment. "But It doesn't matter... it doesn't change that Applejack, Apple Bloom, Ranbow Dash and you would all be OK. I caused a big ol mess, and my friends got hurt because of me." Her ears drooped, her head sagged low and she look at her hooves in sorrow.

I thought about what she was saying, what her point was. She was blaming herself for my current state because she came to me for comfort. If she hadn't done that, her father wouldn't have found them on the porch, setting off the chain of events that happened. I got it... I could understand where she was coming from. But it wasn't right. I tried to think of something to say and hoped I didn't screw it up.

"Scoot... You showed how much you cared about me that night. It took courage and guts to tell me what you did and your father would eventually have had to face the people who care about you anyways. I probably lied that night when you made me promise not to tell anyone... I don't think I could have kept that secret."

Scootaloo gave a sniff. "I caused everypony so much pain..."

"No... your father did. You caused me to feel good about myself... and showed me that I can care about someone like I never have before. In Cloudsdale... I did things that day that I never thought I had it in me to do... and all because you had the courage to come to me that night."

"You're just sayin that..."

"No I'm not."

"You're saying that 'cause I'm cryin like a little foal right now"

"Scoot... I'm saying that because I mean it."

She looked up at me then. Her face was a mask of vulnerable emotion so raw and pure that Twilight's words echoed in my ears again. "...ponies love with all their life force and essence..." she had told me. I became a little frightened of that statement now that I could see it so plainly on Scootaloo's face. Could I love her the way she needs?

She hugged me tight, careful to not squeeze my bad arm. I returned the embrace as best I could. The she kissed me, open mouthed and passionate for the first time since she left my bed before the nightmare of her father began. It sparked that fire in me again for her...

"Errrgh!" A voice sounded from the door. We turned and there was an agitated Apple Bloom. "Listen ya'll, I ain't been able to screw mah head on strait 'round you two since that night! I finally get the nerve ta come in here and talk about it and ya'll are back at it!"

"What are you talking about? Screw your head on straight? What does that mean?" Scootaloo asked her in genuine confusion.

"What I mean is..." she deflated a bit. Like she lost the words she was going to say. "Scootaloo.. yer mah best friend... and Mason, well... yer kinda new here but you're already like part of the family. It's just..." she turned red and lost her will to speak again.

"Apple Bloom... just tell us. It's alright." I said in what I hoped was an encouraging voice.

"THAT WAS WEIRD ALRIGHT! There! I said it!" she blurted at us "All I kin think about are those weird noises you were makin, Scootaloo! And that funny twitching ya'll made each other do! I dunno why but it's drivin me nuts that I can't even look at mah best friend without thinkin bout that and I don't want it ta be weird no more!" she breathed heavily at the door and stared at us.

I didn't know what to say. Jesus... how awkward. Thankfully, Scootaloo was nonplussed.

"Aww! Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo hopped off the bed and went to her friend. "I didn't know..." She hugged her, but Apple Bloom didn't return the hug.

"Ya... well now ya do" Apple Bloom said flatly.

"Umm... well what would make it better?" Scootaloo said. She sounded like she was unsure of how to handle this just as much as I was.

"I dunno! That's the problem!"

"Well.. do you wanna talk about it some more?" the orange filly said helpfully. I seriously was beside myself with embarrassment now. Scootaloo just asked Apple Bloom if she wanted to talk about the sex her and I had!

"I dunno... we already talked 'bout it once" Apple Bloom sighed.

I gulped. These two...

"Well... then?" she trailed off, already out of ideas.

"It's just that... we've always been together, Scootaloo... but now we're not. Cause yer with Mason..." she looked sad. "The Cutie Mark Crusaders ain't gonna be the same if you ain't there..."

"What! That's crazy! Why wouldn't I be there?!" Scootaloo sounded shocked.

"'Cause, if'n I had me somepony to make me feel that good too... I would want to spend all mah time with them instead of a bunch of stupid lonely blank flanks..."

I was way out of my league, this was serious girl talk going on right here. Apple Bloom was jealous, she made that clear. I felt like I shouldn't be a part of whatever these two needed to talk about.

"Hey... I'm not feeling good... I think I'm gonna take a nap" I said as casually as I could and pulled the sheet up over me. I really wasn't tired, but it was the only thing I could think of.

"You sure, Mason?" Scootaloo asked and I gave her a withering stare. She caught it. "Let's go to your room, Apple Bloom!"

"OK" she said miserably and turned, stumping off a few steps while Scootaloo closed my door. She gave me look before she did that I didn't quite catch the meaning of.

I laid there for a moment digesting the knowledge that Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had already talked about the sex play we had. I guess I should have known... girls talk, or so I've heard. The idea was starting to have an effect on me regardless. Something about Scootaloo saying things like to Apple Bloom got me thinking... and that looped back into my memories of Scootaloo in bed with me.

I was back in the original white bottoms I had woken up in at Twilight's house and they easily let my good hand under the waist to feel the hardened pole underneath. It was as good as time as any, I guessed. The emotional high of the talk with Scootaloo and her kiss had put me in the mood for it... and I was alone.

I only had gotten a couple slow, pleasant strokes in when the first stirring happened on my back. I felt the lumps under my skin shift with a flare of discomfort. It stopped me for a moment while I wondered what this was about. The tightness had increased, I could feel it in the skin under my arms and around my shoulders but nothing more. Bringing my cock back to full strength, I stroked a few times again while replaying that night with Scootaloo in my head... and imagining what the next time would be like. The first drops of my own personal lube had just leaked out, increasing the pleasure dramatically... when it happened.

The lumps in by back suddenly throbbed strongly with my heartbeat several times, each throb increasing the tightness and gave a ratcheting up sensation that felt so similar to when my boner was trapped in tight clothes, that I swore it was the same feeling only relocated to my back. I felt a new intense desire to stretch or release this pent up feeling somehow. The pain was there, but this new awareness was so fascinating that momentarily forgot it. I concentrated on my back, feeling the two hot lumps there against the pillow and experimented...willing them to move. I was rewarded with my efforts by a blinding flare of pain. I was being raised off the pillows by them now, my back arched tight from the skin being pulled dramatically taunt. I froze in fear. What have I done!?

My hand came off of my now shrunken member and grasped weakly at the air. I was paralyzed! The skin of my torso was pulled so taunt that I couldn't move. I struggled to breath and wondered if I'd pass out and die like this. The seconds ticked by in agony, the two hard lumps continued to throb, aching for some sort of release. That feeling of tight, paralyzed agony held and was so bad that if I had a long enough knife, I would have probably tried to slice the skin back there to make it go away. There were several small ticks of sharp stinging pain that came and went during the worst of it that were drowned out by the larger throbbing.

I'm not sure how long it was before it began to subside, but slowly it did. The swollen lumps raising me off the bed first shrank, and then another great sliding shift under the skin happened that dropped the tight band around my torso back to a manageable level. Fear descended on me. What if next time it didn't go away? What if next time...

I hadn't thought about when they would break the skin. The thought of my skin tearing like that filled me with dread. No.. It can't happen like that. There has to be some pony medicine or magic to free these things some other way! I'm so stupid! What didn't I ask Twilight this earlier? What if it happened again before she came back?

As if on cue, Twilight appeared for her second daily visit, much to my relief. She found me covered in sweat, shaking and my eyes wide.

"Mason?!" she trotted quickly to the bedside. Spike lazily followed behind carrying the usual cargo. "You look terrible! What's happening?"

I licked my lips, my mind sorting out what to tell her and what not. "They just started moving! I couldn't breathe... it was like they were trying to stretch or something."

"Hmm..." she put a hoof to her muzzle and considered. "What were you doing just before this happened?"

Damn...

"N... Nothing!" I hoped it was convincing.

"Strange, You sure you weren't trying to move them or stretch them?" she gave me a quizzical look.

"I wouldn't even know how!"

"Well... Pegasi wings only move on their own during Penna Tendo Extollo" she paused to consider this. "But if you weren't... you know... then I don't know why they would move on their own like that unless it's something unique to your condition."

"If I wasn't... what?" I asked. I had a feeling I knew, however... I had a sudden recall of Scootaloo's little wings during our encounter.

Twilight put her most intellectual face on and in a studious voice, she spoke as if she was reading an invisible book in front of her; "The wings of both male and female pegasi will display Penna Tendo Extollo during periods of heightened sexual arousal. The symptoms are increased blood flow to the wing structure causing enlargement, uncontrollable extension of one, but usually both dorsal wing appendages and increased sensitivity to touch." she stopped her recitation, her eyes remaining closed with a smug look on her face.

I blinked at her.

"A wing boner?" I asked incredulously, almost giggling.

Her self satisfied look deflated and I heard Spike stifle a laugh behind her. "Boner..." she said, giving Spike an evil glance "... is only a term used by colts! But essentially, yes. However, since you weren't engaging in that... activity that can't be the case. Let me see them!"

I leaned forward to start shifting around to my stomach but something was wrong, the pillow stayed stuck to my back. Twilight put a hoof on it and pushed it away from my skin with a sticky, peeling sensation and then gasped.

"Oh... Mason!" she cried in alarm.

"What!"

"Spike! Get me a wet towel!"

"Sure, Twilight!" Spike vanished down the hall for only a moment.

"What is it!?" I asked her panicking now.

"Just hold on..." she held me forward with her hoof while Spike returned with the warm damp cloth. Twilight used her magic on the cloth to wipe against my back. I noticed that I could feel it in a way different than how a rag should feel against my skin. Each time the rag moved down my back, a quiver of sensitive, almost pleasurable jolts came from those two knobs.

"Woah!" Spike said, looking on. His large green eyes were wide.

"WHAT!!!" I asked again, getting frustrated.

Twilight's voice was filled with an awestruck delight. "Oh... Mason...They're going to be beautiful!"