Waking up in Equestria

Rainbow Dash and Applejack sped away from us as fast as their wings and hooves could carry them. They made for the northern path ahead, taking them into Ponyville and Twilight's house to relay the warning Discord had given. Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Big Mac and myself continued on ahead to finish the task at hand. According to Rainbow Dash, there was no need for us to get involved as this was a matter for Twilight and her leadership. We all agreed to meet at Twilight's castle on the northern edge of Ponyville once we'd gotten Scootaloo squared away. The little orange pegasus had promised it wouldn't take long... she only had a few things anyways.

"Twilight has a castle?" I asked. We had been walking for a good distance, the river crossing where we met Discord was well behind us now.

"Yeah, she is a princess after all." Scootaloo answered me with a matter-of-fact tone.

"But what about the library? I thought... well you know."

"Well... she mostly stays there. I guess she doesn't like the idea of being formal all the time. The library got destroyed once... but Luna, Cadence and Celestia helped her rebuild it."

"Lemmi guess, she blew it up trying out a spell?" I joked.

"No..." her face grew dark. "There was a real bad pony.. a centaur actually. He came and tried to take over Equestria a while ago..."

"But..." I prompted.

"But Twilight and our friends managed to kick his tail!" Apple Bloom cheered from Big Mac's shoulders.

"Yeah, If they can handle that guy... whatever my brother is doing should be a piece of cake!" Scootaloo added, her darkness passing.

"You're not worried?" I asked her.

"Nah, You've never seen Twilight when she's mad..." she smiled knowingly.

We crossed the northern path and continued east. The small dingy houses appeared again on the horizon, squatting on the dirt against the hot sun that beat down overhead. A thin haze hung over them, like a faint brown cloud that spoke of dirt, disease and disuse.

"Did you know your brother?" I asked her. It was one topic we had not talked much about.

"Not really. He disappeared a while ago and he never spent much time here. I remember I wanted to be like him... and fly like him. My father paid attention to him so much that I used to think if I could zoom around like he could, he would pay attention to me too." she gave a sardonic smile.

"Guess that never worked out, eh?"

"Naw..." she blinked and her face relaxed. "Anyways... I remember he has opposite colors as me and my father. He's purple with an orange mane."

"That probably looks pretty cool, actually." I remarked.

"I guess so." she said, shrugging. "I don't care, If he's like my father then... well whatever." she dismissed.

"Yeah, Scoot! Ya got us now anyways! We're yer family!" Apple Bloom spoke up. She had been listening quietly.

"Yeeeup." So had Big Mac.

"And me too" I added, immediately regretting how cheesy it sounded. But her tail came up and brushed my lower thighs in her affectionate way all the same.

"You guys don't seem that concerned about this stuff with Quickfire." I asked my three traveling companions.

"Aww heck, Twilight and the gang'l probably have it sorted out 'for we even get back to the farm!" said Apple Bloom.

"Yeeeup"

The rest of the journey was spent talking about Discord and events that had happened involving him in the past. I learned about Lord Tirek and how he stole magic from the ponies here to grow powerful. It sounded like a fantastic fairy tale, filled with danger, deceit and ultimate victory by the power of friendship alone. The six ponies who's lives I was drawn into seemed special indeed, I wondered if it had anything to do with how rapid my life had changed since coming here... as if simply being near them sucked you into the events that swirled around their power.

Before long we arrived in the gray dingy houses again. The same feeling of depression and despair I'd felt earlier returned when I cast my eyes around at the dwellings and overgrown yards that surrounded them. We followed the path that Scootaloo had spent so long walking alone and made ready to do the work we had come here to do. I opened the front door, the loud, eerie creak of the hinges reverberated in the silent, dim interior of her old house like a morbid doorbell. It felt abandoned and disused, a place where you'd expect to find empty wine bottles and newspapers piled in corners while the stench of piss and stale booze assaulted your nostrils. Thinking of Scootaloo returning here as a home had not lost it's effect on me from the last time.

"I hate this place..." she said with a quiver in her voice.

"This is the last time, Scoots... the last time you have to come here." I said to her and put a hand on her head.

She moved past me into the main room and stood in the middle of the broken down dusty living space while Big Mac and Apple Bloom waited just beyond the steps outside. She said nothing, but stood with her back to me for several moments. Her head turned slowly from side to side, taking in the discarded, dingy foal toys and other relics of her abused past. Gradually, her sides began to heave in deep angry breaths, her neck and shoulders tensing up with each passing moment.

She stayed that way for a while until an angry, guttural cry vented from her muzzle that grew loud in the main room of the house as I watched her silently. In a blur of orange, she spun to the side and bucked her back legs at the small table next to the chair on her right. Stacks of paper blast into the air and the sounds of splintering wood filled the close confines of the room.

Whirling around, she stomped on the pieces with her front hooves, her face a twisted mask of rage and anger that was so out of place that I hardly recognized the pony I'd come to love. Over and over again she thrust down on the pile of debris, each thrust punctuated by a splintering crack from the wood that disintegrated from the force of her blows. Another spin, and this time the chair bore the brunt of her rage. It flew across the room, crumbling into a dusty pile against the wall and fell among the old, tired detritus that had accumulated there over the years. She wasn't done yet. Leaping forward like a pony possessed, her muzzle clamped on a cushion of the couch, ripping it out from it's stitches with a farting, tearing sound that pierced the hot still air of the gloomy main room that she had called her home.

A wounded, painful cry from her throat seeped around the cushion in her mouth and she began to whip the padding with her neck against the floor, slamming it over and over again. I could see tears streaming from her angry eyes when she snapped her head, flinging the cushion away, nearly hitting me. She crouched, panting from her outburst and her eyes cast about for the next target. The raw, exposed emotion on her face pierced my heart with pang of empathy, it spurred me to move to her quickly. I knelt, wrapping my arms around her neck and pulled her close, trying to absorb her momentum and anger into me... to try and lessen her chaotic emotions by taking some on myself. Scootaloo struggled against me briefly, and then surrendered, wrapping her forelegs around my shoulders.

No intelligible sounds came from her, only half words and utterances as she sobbed against my neck. Violent shivers wracked her body and I held on as tight as I could, afraid she would tear loose again. Long moments passed in that stifling heat, sweat running down my back and beading on my forehead while Scootaloo released the pain built up from her years of torment here. I supported her weight when her legs gave out, folding into me and giving herself over to my embrace.

I heard a dragging, thumping sound behind us and then felt the warm press of another pony's body against my side. One leg of Apple Bloom wrapped around my shoulder and I felt the other press against Scootaloo's back over my own embracing arms. She was adding her love and comfort to the small fragile filly in my arms. I moved one arm from Scootaloo's back and wrapped it around Apple Bloom, making room to pull her in to the small circle of comfort we had formed for our friend. Apple Bloom's small sniffing weeps joined the larger, more anguished ones of Scootaloo in the trio of foreheads pressed together, kneeling in the grungy floorspace.

Long moments passed again before anyone moved. I felt Apple Bloom's tail had wrapped around my waist at some point and I gave the red haired filly a squeeze of my own. No one spoke for a while, but it was Scootaloo who eventually did, raising her head to look at both of us with soaking wet cheeks in the tight circle of faces formed by our shared embrace. A delicate and embarrased smile came to her trembling muzzle before she said a single word that conveyed more emotion than the single word's definition meant.

"Thanks."

_____________________________________________________________________

"Twilight!!" Rainbow Dash yelled at the top of her lungs as she burst through the door of the library. " You home? Oh please, Celestia... let her be here!"

Twilight was, in fact, home. Lost in a swirl of books that spun around her head magically while she scanned the titles. In all this time since it was rebuilt, she never felt like she had things in the library organized like they had been before.

"Rainbow Dash!" she started. The books fell to the floor as her concentration broke.

"We got problems!"

Applejack and Rainbow Dash quickly filled in Twilight Sparkle about the news they had heard along the path from Discord. The Alicorn's face became confused when they mentioned a fortress in the southern reaches of the Everfree forest.

"I've never heard of such a place. It's not on any of my maps or in the books I've read. Are you sure you heard right?"

"Good gravy, girl! When has Discord ever missed a chance to send us into some trouble with bad directions?!" Applejack threw to hooves up to make her point.

"Hmm." Her horn lit up again and a large wide book floated to her, opening and turning pages as it did. She placed it on the floor in front of them and began to scan it closely. It was an atlas of Equestria and all the surrounding lands.

"I'm certain there's nothing there! This is the most detailed and accurate map in the world. It updates automatically... see? It already shows my castle." She pointed to a small dot with her hoof. "Maybe I should ask Celestia about this."

Twilight turned her head and yelled "SPIKE!"

The small dragon wandered out of the next room carrying a broom and dustpan. Re shelving day was also cleaning day.

"What's up, Twilight?"

"Send a note to Celestia, Spike. Quickly."

A few moments later, after dictating Twilight's words and setting fire to the scroll with his flame, Spike's belly heaved outward in a great bloat before the familiar deep belching fire shot from his mouth. Celestia's reply was in Spike's hand and Twilight wasted no time, grabbing it with her horn and unfurling it.

"Dear, Twilight." She read aloud. "If Discord is correct, then we are all in grave danger. The place you have described is The Fortress of Denholm, although it is much older than what you have been told. It is not in your books and maps because a spell was placed over it thousands of years ago, hiding it from the world forever. It is where the great ponies of old finally imprisoned The Element of Hate after a great battle, bringing peace and harmony to the land. Since that day, there has not been another pony in Equestria who has had enough hate and anger in their heart to heed the poisonous call of the element and see beyond the spell concealing it's location. It's power is only matched by the Elements of Friendship and Harmony, Twilight. If Quickfire has claimed it for his own, then he will be a dangerous adversary. You will need your friends and all the symbols of love that you can surround yourself with."

Twilight let the scroll fall and looked at her two friends. "The Element of Hate?" she said to them.

"Bah! Hate, schmate, Twilight. This sounds like an easy one! Nothing can stand up to The Elements of Harmony, even Lord Tirek took a hoof to the tail all the way back to Tartarus!" Rainbow Dash puffed her chest out and narrowed her eyes in anticipation. "I can't wait to deal with this creep!"

"I dunno, Dash. We shouldn't take this lightly. Who knows what kind of power an element like that could have." Twilight reasoned.

"Well, ya got us with ya no matter how bad ya be thinkin it is. Now what say we get all tha ponies together at that big ol castle o yer's and get ourselves a plan!" Applejack moved to Twilight's side and put an encouraging hoof on her shoulder.

Twilight's face still remained worried. The Element of Hate... she didn't like the sound of that at all.

_____________________________________________________________________

The sun had just sunk below the horizon by time we set out from the barn again towards the lights of Ponyville to the north. The sun, leaving it's ghostly heat radiating up from the hard dirt beneath and caressing us in the slight breeze, had been mercilessly beating down all day and the shade of sunset felt invigorating. The sky was a deepening cloudless blue with traces of the orange sun still visible beyond the horizon. We had left Big Mac behind and now Apple Bloom used Scootaloo's two wheeled scooter in a similar fashion as I had weeks before. She was easily able to keep up with me and Scootaloo as we walked freely on the journey into town.

Scootaloo was right, she didn't have much. Big Mac and I had quickly moved her bed while the two girls grabbed the remaining items from around the room in her old house. After her outburst, Scootaloo had seemed happier and more vibrant than I'd ever seen her and I was glad to have that hellish place behind us.

"Do ya think Twilight's gotta plan yet?" The red haired filly asked, pushing herself along with her good rear hoof.

"Are you kidding! I bet Rainbow Dash has already flown out there to give him a piece of her mind!" Scootaloo grinned.

"Nuh uh! I bet mah sister's already kicked his tail to Tartarus!" Apple Bloom shot back.

"Ha! Applejack's probably still running there! Everypony knows Rainbow Dash is the fastest!"

They argued back and forth in the way that friends do. Their voices were light and happy in the still warm air of the early evening as I walked along beside them. Now that the shock of Discord had gone and the emotional situation of Scootaloo's house was behind us, I found my attention drawn to my wings.

They already felt larger and more present on my back. The feathers, that only the day or two before had brushed the small of my back now extended below my waistline. The episode earlier with them keeping me from falling automatically had captured my imagination. I had no control over that incident and tried to replay how felt when it happened. I was tempted to try just jumping in the air with thoughts of flight in my mind but thought better of it. Not only did I run the risk of looking like an idiot, I didn't want to make Scootaloo feel jealous if I took off like superman.

We gained the northern path leading into town and made the left turn onto the well worn and wide dirt track bordered by shin high grass that buzzed with the evening chorus of insect activity. I'd stopped paying attention to my two companions while being lost in thought when a hoof from Apple Bloom in my side got my attention.

"Did ya hear me? How are tha new tops Rarity gave ya workin out?"

"Uhh.. fine I guess. The let my wings move nicely" I gave them a flex to demonstrate.

"They're already way bigger than mine! That's no fair!" Scootaloo whined

"Sorry... can't help it" I apologized sheepishly.

"Your gonna be sorry when I get a hold of you!" she teased back, an impish grin played on her muzzle.

"Oh yeah?" I shot back playfully. "Just what are you gonna do, huh?"

"Whatever I want!"

"Ha! You wish."

"No YOU wish"

"Keep dreaming, Puffball" I said. I had forgot about Apple Bloom.

"Puffball??" Apple Bloom asked, looking at Scootaloo. "Where'd tha come from?"

"Oh that's just his stupid name for me 'cause my tail was all messed up when...." she trailed off, realizing where she was going.

"When what?!" Apple Bloom prompted her.

"Nuthin..." Scootaloo balked.

"Tell me!"

"No! It's... embarrassing!"

"TELL MEEEE!" Apple Bloom fairly shouted in frustration. I was getting a bit uncomfortable myself at this point. 'Puffball' was the nickname I'd given her the morning after we had sex the first time. Her tail and mane were so messed up, she looked like a giant, purple puff of hair.

"Urgghh!" Scootaloo grunted in resignation. "That morning after we had SEX, OK?! It was all frizzed up and looked like a puffball from all the rubbin around!"

Apple Bloom's head whipped to me and then back to Scootaloo. I was flabbergasted.

"Bah hahahah!" Apple Bloom laughed loudly, throwing her head back and closing her eyes. "Oh my stars... I'da given ANYTHING to see that!" she howled.

"Yeah, well keep laughing like that and I won't ask him!" Scootaloo frowned at her friend.

"Ask me what?" I said. I felt like I had missed something.

"Ask you if she can WATCH us!" Scootaloo said with a vengeful look to Apple Bloom.

I wasn't following at first, there was no way what I thought she said meant what I thought she said. "Watch us... what?"

"Duh! Do it!" Scootaloo threw an exasperated hoof in the air. "Apple Bloom wants to watch us in bed, Mason... there I said it, alright?! She wants to see what it's like to have a special somepony but she's too scaredy cat to ask you!"

I was completely at a loss for words. If there was an angel and a devil on my shoulder... they would be locked in a battle to the death. The angel was fighting for the private and intimate relationship I had with Scootaloo, while the devil? Well, I was a teenage guy after all. Any idea of sex held my interest easily... but it didn't make it any less awkward.

"Not anymore!" Apple Bloom hollered back in embarrassed anger. "Not if'n yer gonna be rude 'bout it! Who'd wanna watch ya'll anyways!"

"I ain't bein rude! You're the one who started this!" Scootaloo bristled and launched herself at her friend on the scooter next to her.

The two wound up on the ground in front of me, rolling around, angling for a position on top of the other while continuing the argument. At least once, a loud yell from Apple Bloom declared "TIME OUT... MAH LEG!" and the two would freeze while she adjusted the position of her bound leg in relation to their bodies... and then it would continue just as it left off.

Seriously? I thought. Either Apple Bloom was a little deviant or sex wasn't a taboo here like it was back home. Hell, I'd only just gotten my first taste of it a few days ago and now this was coming up? Watching the two wrestle, my mind made itself up rather easily. Who was I to refuse if Scootaloo was up for it? It kinda made me feel a bit naughty in a fun way just thinking about it.

"Well... as long as Scootaloo is cool with it, I guess it's alright." I said casually, loud enough to be heard over their scrum.

They both stopped and looked at me. Scootaloo was on top of Apple Bloom with one hoof on her neck and the other pinning one of her legs down. Apple Bloom regarded me coolly from her upside down vantage point in the dirt.

"Ahright then." she said calmly.

They both got up and brushed the others coat off in a manner that made me think this whole thing was planned out from the beginning. Maybe these two had been up to something all along?

"We're gonna be late! Lets get going!" Scootaloo took off down the path.

Apple Bloom mounted the scooter and took off after her, leaving me to jog behind in a bemused state of curiosity... and more than just a little bit of arousal. Apple Bloom may not have the emotional hold over me that Scootaloo did, but that didn't mean I wasn't a little interested in broadening my experience... especially with Scootaloo's willing participation.

Not another word was spoken about it for a long while.