Living in Equestria

Twilight slept like a baby. I know this because I didn't.

At no point in my life would I ever have imagined I'd find out how difficult it is to sleep in a sagging bed with a pony the size of a fully grown Great Dane with an eighteen inch goddam horn sticking out of it's forehead.

I'd learned hoof management techniques from my nights with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, and those occasions that Sweetie Belle stayed over were alright because her horn was so much smaller and blunted on the end. But Twilight was a burrower, if she knew it or not, and I fought a constant battle to keep myself from getting speared by her magical appendage.

The most painful experience of the night was when she rolled over from facing away from me to facing towards me. Her horn slapped painfully across my chest with the momentum of her nighttime twist and when she settled, the end of it nearly removed the skin under my chin as effectively as a rolled up tube of eighty grit sandpaper. I did manage to get some sleep, but not the blissfull, unbroken slumber of the purple alicorn princess who was curled up next to me in a fading cloud of her own musk.

I awoke to her hoof shaking me awake in the dull morning light of a cloudy day. I don't know how long she'd been up, but she positively glowed with energy.

"Come on! We gotta get going if we wanna make the cliffs before noon, sleepyhead!" she smiled with mock impatience at me.

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I squinted at her as she hovered over the bed. The air from her wing beats fanned me with a soothing breeze that lulled me to go back to sleep.

"Huzza.. mugumpin?" I said intelligently.

"Whatever..." she dismissed. "Let's go!"

A short time later we were ready to leave. Throughout the brief period of showering and stowing our gear back in our respective bags, I caught Twilight's eye several times, looking for any sort of acknowledgement from last night's intimate moment. I wasn't looking for her to be gushing with emotion... but I did finger her to an orgasm, the first time anypony had according to her. I thought that at least deserved an honorable mention the next day. But there was nothing. She appeared to not even remember or care that something like that had happened between us.

Until my hand touched the doorknob to leave.

"Mason... wait." she said, with an unexpected, urgent panic in her voice. I turned around to see the princess looking down and away with a sheepish expression.

"Look... I don't know how to say this without it sounding rude because that's not what I'm going for here...." Twilight's ears did that 'troubled pony' thing where they lay flat again. I stood, waiting for her to continue.

"But, that thing... last night? Don't tell anypony about it, OK?" her eyes met mine.

"Ehh.. I wasn't planning on it, but why?" I looked at her confused.

"You know why, Mason. If you don't then you haven't been listening to anything I've opened up to you about this whole trip!" she said with alarm.

"Ahh.. the whole princess thing. Got it."

She relaxed a bit. "Yeah... I know you probably think I'm being weird again. But I don't care. It's who I am, right? The awkward... bookworm stick in the mud who got handed a kingdom?" she smiled up at me hopefully, her ears perking up again.

"That sounds about right." I nodded in agreement with a smile, "It never happened, alright?"

"Thanks. And Mason...?" she paused, the color in her cheeks suddenly flaring a bright red.

"Yeah?"

"It was really nice, what you did for me last night... I liked it." her smile didn't change, but rather it took on a whole new quality of affection I'd never seen from her before. It made her more regal than she'd ever imagine.

We dropped our bags off at the check in counter of the train station right after checking out of the seedy motel, ignoring the fat stallion's request for a rundown of how good the night was for me. At the station, overnight room twelve was assigned to us and after leaving our two bags at the counter to be stowed until our car arrived later that afternoon, we took to our wings and headed south towards the distant, orange cliffs of the Badlands.

As we flew together, leaving the city and traveling over the broad swath of barrens that lay between it and the cliff, I caught Twilight smiling broadly out of the corner of my eye. When she saw me looking at her, she tried to wipe the smile from her face and arrange her features normally but that only served to make her look deranged. I wanted to ask her what she was so happy about, but the wind rushing past my ears would mean I'd have to shout to be heard. Talking while flying like this was always a pain so the both of us continued in silence until we reached the Badland's boarder.

The cliffs were tall. I mean really tall. We had already been flying at a pretty good height, but were forced to climb sharply to reach the top of the flat plateau to rest on the cliff's edge to catch our breath. The flat, barren top stretched away to the south and gave us no indication of the valley beyond that Twilight claimed existed. The scorched earth around us, however, proved that dragons were around nearby. Even from the our feet and hooves we could see long streaks of blackened earth where intense fire had licked the rocks, melting some with the heat only capable by the belly of those creatures.

"Alright, let's fly along the ridge and see if we can spot any dragons, Mason. Hopefully they can point us in the right direction." Twilight suggested and flexed her wings after we'd had a brief rest.

There were no signs of life for many miles by my estimate. Endless orange rock landscape scrolled by underneath us as we flew east along the ridge line looking for any signs of movement. Barren rock and scorched earth greeted us that was visibly burned by fire in several places. As the silence and emptiness wore on for what felt like hours under the low, diffuse light of day given off by the clouds above, Twilight called a halt.

"Eeergh! We're getting nowhere with this! There's not a dragon around for miles!" she threw a frustrated hoof in the air.

"Maybe we should to further in... towards the south?" I offered.

Twilight considered this for a moment before she nodded reluctantly. "I was hoping we wouldn't have to search that hard, I mean... Doctor Goodhoof said there were dragons all over this place!"

"Well, we have to keep looking, so..." I drifted to the south and she followed behind.

We flew in this new direction along more of the same terrain and the ground only became more blistered. An occasional crater appeared here and there that looked to be made by something massive, like a boulder or something, being dropped from a high altitude. These became more frequent as we approached the southern lip of the ridge that dropped sharply off into the hazy bowl that formed the northern edge of the Badlands below.

"What do you suppose made these?" she called out to me and then dipped to the surface to inspect one of the large craters near the southern lip.

"Whatever it was, it was damn heavy... that's for sure." I said, landing next to her. There was a semi circle of a boulder in the middle of this crater and based on the rise and debris around the hole, it looked like it had hit from an angle.

I looked off into the smoky haze that covered the land before us. The ridge we were on was higher here than on the north side. So high that I couldn't make out the ground through the strange, yellow tinted fog that lay on the floor of the valley like a blanket. Twilight had said this place was a barren wasteland... and her description was true, made all the more ominous by the low hanging clouds above that were tinted yellow by the hidden sun's light.

"So.. you think we should-" her question was cut off by a horrendous shriek that stung my eardrums with it's volume and pitch.

A bright flare of yellow lit the clouds above us moments before two massive dragons, locked together by their back feet in a fierce, thrashing grapple of spearing talons fell through the misty overhanging cloud bank. They both beat their wings frantically, trying to gain altitude on the other as they plummeted past us and down towards the valley below. One was colored yellow and the other green, but other than that, I couldn't distinguish much between the two.

"Mason! Look!" Twilight pointed needlessly at the breathtaking sight.

"Yeah! I got it! Holy shit!" I cried.

My wonder turned to horror a split second later as the two combatants changed direction, sailing towards Twilight and I with the momentum of a semi truck at full speed. Her and I dove out of the way in mid air to avoid being slammed into by the massive creatures and we watched from above as the yellow one gained the upper hand on the green one, slamming it into the top of the ridge like a meteor to create yet another crater in the already scarred landscape.

Greenie suddenly let out a blast of fire that hit the yellow dragon full in the face, causing it to release it's grip and shriek with pain. Even though I was scared shitless, I couldn't help but marvel at how beautiful it was even though badly cut and bleeding in several places. The yellow scales on it's long neck shimmered in the diffuse light as it whipped it's head back and forth, blinded by the firestorm before it flew off, dropping over the lip and disappearing into the thick haze below the southern rim. Twilight and I looked at each other with dazed shock at the sudden but spectacular battle we just witnessed and it wasn't until we heard the coughing groan from the ground below that we remembered we were not yet alone.

The greenie was obviously hurt. He lay in the crater, one front leg unmoving while the other clawed weakly at the edge of the depression created by the impact. His gigantic head lolled from side to side, one eye swollen shut and the other scanned wildly around before fixing on Twilight.

"Help..." a rumbling voice came from his fanged mouth that was stained with dark blood.

Twilight looked at me, wondering what we should do.

"Don't fucking look at me! Should we help him!? How do we know he won't fry us?!" I yelled.

"Oooh..." she knocked her two front hooves together with worry in mid air. "I've never cast a healing spell on a dragon this big! Spike is so small!"

The Greeine sagged against the rocks and stopped struggling, a helpless, resigned look came over it's face.

"If you're gonna do something better do it quick..." I called over to where she hovered nearby.

Twilight hesitated for a moment, then screwed her face up in determination as she landed next to the injured dragon. Lowering her head, she concentrated before the healing spell's magic flared to life in a brilliant blue flash.

A tremendous roar came from Greenie and Twilight staggered backwards, pushing against some unseen force hard enough to make her back legs dig in to the rocks below her hooves. She rallied, and shoved forward with her horn, breaking though whatever invisible resistance that was there to let her healing magic stream out. The dragon settled and then became calm, breathing deeply with it's eyes closed for a long while as Twilight's horn gained a steady, blue glow visible even in the daylight. A good amount of time passed in silence before the horn winked out and the alicorn sagged from the effort.

"Well?" I said, landing next to the Twilight who's legs looked a bit wobbly.

"He should be able to make it to the dragon hospital, at least..." she panted, "I'm sorry... I just don't know much about adult dragons!"

Greenie stirred and then climbed out of the crater with a great lunging jump, trying to take to his wings, but one of the massive sheets of leathery green skin was torn in several places and he over corrected, landing some distance away from us with an earthshaking thud and then scrambling to his four, thick legs while Twilight and I crouched in readiness to take off at any second should he turn violent. He was massive now that he was out of the crater. His scaled, dark green back was easily fifteen feet off the ground and with the long neck, his head towered over us. The tail alone looked about as long as a school bus. The one eye not swollen shut burned red as if lit by lava from behind as he gazed down us.

"Thank you... I will make for the hos-" he let out a great, barking cough that sounded like dynamite. "-pital. The Dragons of the West are in your debt." he turned to leave.

"Wait!" Twilight called out suddenly. "Where are all the other dragons?! There were supposed to be lots around here!" she asked.

The dragon stopped and turned towards us, bringing it's head down to our level only a stone's throw away. I could feel the heat and the overpowering smell of sulfur coming from it's breath even from this distance. At this range I could also see that yes... that eye did swim with a liquid like glow behind the glassy surface of it's eyeball. The vertical pupil slid shut to focus on us with keen intelligence.

"You were told wrong. No dragon or drake roam these lands unless they are engaged in the war. You would do wisely to leave this place least a Northern Drake finds you. You'll find them... disagreeable towards your kind."

"That's who you're fighting? The Northern Drakes?" Twilight was going into full bookworm mode. I could picture the quill and book being scribbled in already.

"Our affairs do not concern you!" he growled, "What business would you have with the dragons that lived here anyways?!"

Twilight's head turned and she prompted me with a look of well-what-are-you-waiting-for? that was my cue.

"We need help for a young dragon friend of ours... he... kinda has a problem with... Feracity?" I finally spat. I couldn't help but wince at how awkward it sounded given the circumstances.

I expected at the very least for the magnificent beast in front of us to laugh, much less so I did I expect any help. But his reaction was just as puzzling as the receptionist at the dragon hospital. The great eyeball that wasn't swollen shut rolled with exasperation and he gave a petulant click of it's tongue that reminded me of Scootaloo when I teased her, turning it's massive body away from us to leave before looking back over it's shoulder.

"I have no idea what you are, creature, but it's obvious you're no smarter than a pony." the massive head shook and swung away to the north where it was heading, "Sweet molten lava... coming to a battle ground and asking about Feracity? Unbelievable!" it muttered to itself and began to stomp away.

"Wait!" I called after it but the dragon ignored us. It's large strides took it quickly out of earshot, leaving Twilight and I to stare after it with frustration.

"Errgh! That's twice now! Are all dragons this rude and unhelpful outside of Ponyville?!" Twilight pouted, visibly upset at not getting an answer again, "Or maybe you're just an awful wingpony!" she whirled her frustration on me.

"What!?" I said, growing a bit angry at her comment.

"You're clearly not doing it right, otherwise two dragons wouldn't have reacted the way they did." she replied with a studious air.

Closing the distance between us rapidly with a few, quick steps, I came near Twilight who pulled her head back on her neck slightly at my angry approach with a small look of shock... and maybe fear? I didn't care. I'd had enough of this for one day. I don't know why her comment angered me so much, but it did.

"First of all, princess, you don't even know what a wingpony is! Just because you read something in a book doesn't mean you know everything about it! Fuck! I've never even been to a club and I know more about what a wingpony is than you do!"

Twilight recoiled from me, taking a half step back and raising a single leg up as if I'd slapped her. I immediately regretted losing my temper. She didn't need to say anything... the wounded look in her eyes was enough.

"Shit... I'm sorry, Twilight..." I said, relaxing my posture. "I didn't mean-"

"No... you meant it." she said, cutting my apology off. "I've never seen you get angry before... I must really annoy you." her ears fell.

The muggy, burnt air of the plateau whipped around us, throwing Twilight's mane wildly around the frame of her hurt face. The whole scene... the low, yellow clouds, the orange ground, the smell of sulfur in the air combined with the blasted landscape gave her a look of lonely, lost wanderer... somepony who didn't know quite exactly where she belonged. I guess in some fashion that was true.

"You don't... I just... I'm just frustrated, that's all. We both are..." I took a small step towards her and when she relaxed and allowed me to get close, I leaned over and gently hugged her in that barren landscape. I felt her hoof wrap around me in a strong embrace.

"Sorry, Sparklehead..."

___________________________________________________

Ashley gave up on trying to sleep after the first train arrived during the early morning hours. She wasn't getting much of it anyways, every noise she heard had turned into a monster in her half asleep brain, jarring her awake and leaving her paranoid with fear. When she finally crawled out of the small opening she made last night into the morning light and scrub surrounding the base of the wooden platform, the ponies walking by stepped back with shock at the sudden appearance of the little red dragoness.

"Whaddya lookin at, huh!" she snapped at the small crowd, "Ain't ya ever seen a dragon before! Gowan, Stupid ponies! Get outta here!"

She did her best to stare them down until they began to move again before she moved on, climbing the steps of the train station to sit on the bench outside the large, glass front doors. Ashley sat, miserable and hungry for a while trying to think of what to do before she began to beg for bits from the travelers nearby. Something was different today though, something that captured the attentions of the passers by much better than she usually could but she couldn't figure out why. Soon, she ended up with five bits... enough for a really good breakfast across the street. Something she hadn't had in a while.

Inside the diner, Ashley picked a seat out by the window so she could watch the ponies walking by and when her food came, she ate with gusto. It had been forever since she'd had a big meal like this and it went along way towards making her feel better. But with feeling better came some clearer thinking. She still had no idea what she was going to do or where she was going to go.

A familiar shape caught her eye on the street. It was that human she met yesterday who caught her after she tried to lift the princess's bit pouch. She still felt stupid about that whole thing. She never had tried anything that crazy before and the fact she was caught so easily made her think that maybe stealing stuff wasn't what she was good at.

She watched them walk towards the train station while she used a claw to absently pick at a piece of food stuck between her small fangs when a sudden idea hit her. A castle! she thought, That was where that princess lived and she even said it was huge... I bet I could live there forever and never even be noticed!"

Ashley quickly dropped the four bits on the table that she owed and scampered out the door, giving a little beltch as she did from her fully belly. She hadn't quite figured out how exactly to make her plan work... but she was already moving towards the train station so she didn't lose them and her only chance at knowing where the princess's castle was. She'd been here long enough to know that the next train was due any minute and she'd have to think fast in order to find a way to sneak on.

But they didn't board the train. Instead, they left their bags at the check in counter and immediately turned back towards the door right where she was standing! Ashley panicked, hopping in place for a second while she tried to look for a place to hide. There was nowhere here on the front steps of the train station that she could get behind except for the door itself when it opened and so that's where she bolted to, barely making it before the human threw open the wooden panel. It hit her tail and stopped suddenly, causing a yelp of pain from both her and the human who smacked into it that luckily cancelled each other out so the two didn't notice her.

"You alright?" she heard the alicorn say with genuine concern.

How nice... Ashley thought sarcastically as she nursed her injured tail, They must be mates or something...

It was pure luck they didn't notice her and she listened to their conversation until they passed out of earshot. Something about flying south. She didn't care... Ashley had figured it all out.