Nothing's More Important

Chapters

... than NOT being on fire.
... than being polite.
... than taking what's yours. (Clop)
... than doing Science!
... than being a good neighbor.
... than paying your taxes.
... than something to eat.
... than NOT being autopsied.
... than getting nice and wet. (Clop)
... than going home.
... than meeting the parents.
... than full disclosure.
.. than being a good neighbor.
... than making peace.
... than watching the moon rise.
... than a good breakfast.
... than planting the right seeds.
... than having a sunny disposition.
... than doing market research.
... than having some alone time.
... than meeting yourself.
... than getting along with yourself.
... than tearing down walls.
... than being with your wife. (Clop)
... than answering the invitation.
... than getting your ingredients.
... than not being alone.
... than consummating the marriage. (clop)

... than NOT being on fire.

Justin tilted his head. "I'm afraid I don't have any contact with… Um, do you want to go back to town?" He pointed back through the darkness. "You're probably right, sir….? I'm Justin, Justin Thyme. Nice to meet you."

The man considered the pony for a moment before deciding that he had nothing better to do than roll with it. “Bruce Martin,” he said, offering an open, gloved hand toward Justin. “Are you the one that saved my butt from that fire?”

Justin quickly bobbed his head. "I just happened to be close by and heard you." He rose up to his hooves with his breathing under control. "Can you walk? I can give you a ride if you need one." He looked back at his supplies, frowning at the cloudy state many of the vials had reached.

Bruce groaned a bit as he struggled to his feet, but thanks to the fire repellant clothing, and Justin’s fast action, his injuries were primarily smoke inhalation based, plus an impressive collection of first degree burns. Those were painful, to be sure, but wouldn’t keep him down. With no smoke or flames around, he took his helmet off, revealing sooty but otherwise blonde hair, and a light skinned human face that smiled down at the shorter pony. “I think I’m okay. Though I don’t know where there is to go without crossing that fire, and I’ve already done that more times than I’d like to.”

The pony looked over the human curiously a moment before a thought came to him. He fished out his little pony statue and held it out on a hoof to him. "Do you know what this is?" It had nothing to do with getting either of them to comfort, but curiosity won out.

Bruce looked at it and frowned. This hallucination was getting far too meta, and self-referential. “It’s a My Little Pony doll… my little girl has a few of them. That one’s… Applejack, I think? Can I see it?”

Justin lifted the hoof an inch higher in a clear sign of agreement. "I found it. Uh, this evening's been a little confusing, but I'm glad I saved you, so it wasn't all a bust." Why did he have a little statue of a former Element of Harmony? That was so creepy! "I'll show the way to a warm bed."

Bruce rubbed off a bit of the soot with his sleeve, and cleared up the belly of the figurine, aside from where some writing had been carved in it, and was now stark black from the soot stuck in the small crevice. “Isabelle,” he read aloud, before offering the figure back to Justin.

"Isabelle" repeated Justin. Was that the name of the… smoke girl? So many more questions rose up, demanding answers, but he saw no way to get an answer. He sniffed the little statue of the celebrity. "I'll take care of her for you, Isabelle." With the promise made, he moved to tuck Applejack away.

“You found her!” said the apparition of the little girl, suddenly standing beside the two males and glowing faintly. “I knew you would! You’re best pony!”

Bruce opened his mouth to comment, but decided his hallucination didn’t need a play-by-play description of itself and simply shut up.

Justin took a step back in surprise, but smiled quickly. "I did. Are you alright, Isabelle?" Was she Isabelle? He hoped he was getting it right. He'd never talked to a… was she a ghost?

“I am now,” Isabelle confirmed. “I finally got to meet a really, real real life pony!” She gave Justin another hug, just as weird feeling as last time, but for better and worse it didn’t rip him out of this world and into another one this time. “It’s what I really, really wanted…” she said as she faded from view.

All the pieces fell into sudden place as Justin's mind worked overtime. "Oh Celestia…" He collapsed to his haunches. "I…" He looked up at Bruce with the start of tears forming. "I was her final wish…"

Bruce sat down beside him, resting a hand gently on his back to comfort him, just letting the moment stretch on quietly until he came up with a startling revelation of his own a minute later. “Holy shit, you’re real!”

Justin tilted his head at the sudden exclamation. "Of course I am. I pulled you out of a fire!" He rose back to his hooves and began to slowly circle, new thoughts coming. "Was this her home? Was this your home? I… get the idea… my home isn't that way." He pointed a hoof towards where he had originally come from and then set it on the ground, slowly and calmly, only to begin prancing in place, working into a full freak out. "Where am I?!"

"Justin! Calm yourself. Take a deep, slow breath..." Bruce advised. “You’re in Idaho, and the only thing dangerous in these parts is the fires, and we're pretty safe from them here. You won't find a way home by panicking."

Justin gave a shaky sort of nod. "Right right… panicking never solved anything at all." He rubbed over his snout a moment. "I'm guessing your house isn't looking so good, and I don't know where mine is anymore. Where should we go? Do your authorities give out houses?"

“Sometimes, but luckily for me I don’t live around here. One of these belonged to my wife’s family, though, and they’re in for a rough time. They have another house on the other side of the flames, which is going to get awfully crowded if it manages to survive,” Bruce answered before looking around. “There isn’t much shelter around here at the moment, aside from those trees. I wonder why they didn’t get burned.”

The pony looked at the trees curiously a moment before he shook his head. "I don't think we can get much rest in those." He ambled towards a tree despite his words and began looking for any salvageable herbs. Maybe he'd find something! Oh… He stopped with an abrupt thought and dug out his field guide of common mixtures and potions. "Thank goodness I brought this."

Bruce followed along, still feeling like he was in a dream or something, despite the obvious. The trees they approached weren’t enough to qualify as a forest, but they could perhaps qualify as a grove. The plant life within was quite varied, and some of it seemed to match things in Justin’s book, even though much of it was definitely not.

Justin Thyme got himself busy collecting herbs. He even looked happy while doing it. His bags soon became full of things he knew, and things he didn't but was eager to try things with later. "There's so much here. If I had a grove like this by my house, I would barely need to go anywhere at all."

Bruce started to get a little nervous as they got deeper, looking over his shoulder frequently, but not seeming to find anything relevant. Before long they found a small cave, one shallow enough for them to see its entirety before entering. There were some scattered animal bones in the cave, and a depression in the dirt that looked just about the right size for Justin to curl up there comfortably, if he so chose.

“I’m starting to think you might be right about not getting much rest here,” Bruce commented.

Justin looked around the cave before turning away. "Um, no, that's probably not a good idea." He put his deductive mind to work, practically appearing above his head in a thought cloud. Cave + Bones + Space for a pony = Hungry predator about the size of a pony. "Um, let's find somewhere else…" He moved away from that cave and its potentially deadly inhabitant.

Further exploration found a small stream, which managed to have clean water it in. Or at least not obviously polluted.

Justin wandered up towards the stream, sniffing at it once before he sat down beside it and pulled out a mixing bowl and pestle to grind things with. "Is it alright if I make some things for us? Being prepared will help keep us safe."

“I’m all for being safe,” Bruce consented, before taking the time to start washing the soot off his face and hands. He looked at the water a bit dubiously after that, as if trying to decide something before sitting down to alternate between watching Justin and looking around at the woods.

Justin began with some fresh water in the bowl, then began adding plants carefully and grinding them up with patient motions of his hooves. He held the pestle between the hooves, the top of it being flattened to let his hooves get a good grip, and he churned it like butter. "So, tell me about, uh, this? Where are we?"

“We’re in Idaho, a uh, pretty rural area. They grow a lot of potatoes out here, and some other stuff. It got really dry this summer, and then some lightning strikes lit it up, so… yeah. I came to help the in-laws do their best to contain the fires, but as you can see there’s more than we can really deal with. I almost…” Bruce got quiet as he reminded himself how close he came to dying, and just stared at the flowing water for a bit.

Justin lifted an ear at the thoughtful looking male. "You did what you could. I'm glad we're both alive to worry about it." He pulled the mixer to the side to peer into the mix, then added a third plant. The entire thing began to turn red quickly as he ground it up, and stop being a paste and more of a gel. He gathered a vial and it obediently allowed him to collect it into it, filling it with the red goo. "There. How are the burns feeling? You can use this."

“They’re constantly reminding me that I’m alive,” Bruce said with a pained grin, before reaching out to accept the vial. “Should I rub this on the burns?”

Justin quickly nodded. "It'll soothe the pain and help you heal. They don't look that bad from here? I'm not a doctor, but I make a lot of things that could help." He was already hard at work on his next potion, this one apparently involving more heating as he labored to get a little controlled fire going, which proved far easier in theory than in reality.

Getting the fire going proved to be beyond Justin's ability, to his mounting frustration. Maybe everything was just too damp from the creek? It was as good of an explanation as any.

Justin grunted softly and abandoned the effort. There were other potions to make. He stuck his head up defiantly as he got to mixing the next. With the human as company and audience, he slowly refilled his stock with about four new potions made from the herbs he knew the properties of.

Bruce shed much of his clothing, leaving on only a pair of black boxers as he got to work spreading the gel on his reddened skin. He had to spread it pretty thin to cover as much of his body as possible, mostly on his extremities where it seemed to be the worst. But when he had finished, he sighed with a bit of relief, enjoying the cool night air on his exposed skin, so pleasantly unlike fire.

Justin set his mortar and pestle away after rinsing both off thoroughly, then approached Bruce with a hopeful smile. "Feeling better? We really shouldn't stay in the wilderness like this, it isn't safe at all." He pointed at himself. "Are all of your ponies like you? Are they alright with ponies like me?"

Bruce took a moment to try and make sense of what Justin was saying with his overuse of the word ‘ponies’. “We’re called humans, and yeah, all the ones that can talk are like me. We have some animals that look kind of like you, but they don’t talk, or make medicine, or anything clever like that, and most of them are a lot bigger. As for being alright with someone like you… well, I’ll vouch for you.”

Justin nodded. "That'll have to do." What would they do? Chase him out of town? "Are there any laws I should know about? I don't want to get into trouble for walking on the wrong side of the street or something. That would be silly."

Bruce laughed a bit. “There’s a ton, more than anyone can keep straight, but the really big ones are pretty simple. Don’t steal. Don’t attack anyone. Don’t have sex with anyone without their permission. Though if we get into a bigger town, we’ll have a talk about where to walk safely.”

Justin seemed to count on his one hoof at each crime was mentioned, until the sex one came up and he coughed. "Who would even dream of doing that?!" He set his hooves back on the ground and stood up. "Walk safely? Are the roads dangerous?"

“Anyone who would dream of such a thing gets locked away for a very long time,” Bruce said somberly. “As for the roads… you don’t want to get hit by a car. Stick to the sidewalks, and cross when it’s safe and legal to do so, and you should be fine. But that isn’t really a consideration way out here, right now.”

Justin bobbed his head quickly. "It's just like Manehattan. Alright, stay off the roads if you don't want a carriage to run you right over, got it. This doesn't sound so bad…" They weren't ponies, but they had laws that made sense, and the one he met seemed nice enough. "Lead the way."

Bruce thought a moment, looking longingly at the water in the stream once more, before deciding he still wasn’t thirsty enough to risk whatever microorganisms might be living in the water. He climbed to his feet and put on his normal clothing before gathering the firefighting gear that had been over it into the coat. “I guess it’ll be fine to sleep under the stars, near one of those burned out houses for the night? Or we could go see how the fire’s going before we decide,” he offered.

“Don’t go,” said a gruff voice from the woods, it came from far enough away that they couldn’t see the source in the shadows of the starlit night, and sounded more commanding than asking, with the slightest hint of growl.

Justin closed his mouth, aborting whatever he was about to say to instead peer at the voice/growl and back up towards his human companion. "Did you hear that? It wasn't just me was it?"

“Show yourself!” Bruce demanded of the voice, anger quashing his fear for the moment. “If you don’t want us to leave, explain yourself!”

“The pony stays,” the voice said before adding “as my guest.” The growliness of the voice made it hard to take that as comforting. “If you leave now, you can go home, human, but don’t return. Once I show myself, you’ll be my guest too.”

Justin glanced up at Bruce, then towards the ominous voice. "If it's all the same, I think I'll go home with the, uh, human here." Yes, that certainly sounded like a safer route, all things considered.

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that. You’ve both been haunted, that’s reason enough to bind him as it is,” the voice said. “But you, little pony. You don’t belong in their world anymore than I do.”

Bruce as getting a really bad vibe about this whole thing, and started crouching a bit, like coiling a spring. “Get ready to run,” he whispered to Justin.

Justin gave the briefest of nods. "I, um, made the little ghost girl happy. Why would she want anything bad to happen to me?" He huffed at the voice. "You're being mean for no good reason."

“Such ungratefulness when I’m going so far out of my way to protect you,” the voice said with an extra irritated growl at the end. “The man might be dismissed as delirious from smoke inhalation, but you’ll endanger all of us out there. And the next one who finds you might not be so gentle in her efforts to protect you. Or even see you as worth protecting...”

The words confused Justin, and made him curious as well. He took a hesitant step forward. "What are you protecting me from? I'm sorry, you're just… kind of scary sounding. I'm not trying to be ingrateful, please tell me." A lot of things stopped making sense in the last day, and he hoped that would change.

“Make your choice, human. Stay and be bound, or flee now. I see your ring,” the voice said. That was incentive enough for Bruce and he took off at a dead sprint, fleeing like his life depended on it. Which seemed likely enough.

... than being polite.

As the human disappeared into the distance, a black furred wolf with streaks of grey along her belly stepped out into the clearing, where Justin could see her but Bruce certainly could not, even if he turned back. She looked at Justin calmly, taking a seat just in sight and waiting a moment for Justin’s reaction.

Justin thrust out a hoof at Bruce when he took off, his body urging him to follow. When the herd moves, it's wise to be a part of it. He didn't know what to do at that point. He turned back to see a wolf approaching and grit his teeth. He'd be brave and face what may come. "So… What are you protecting me from?" Besides his new friend.

“The humans, of course,” the wolf spoke. “Oh, they can be nice enough, individually, but in larger numbers? They can be very good at playing friendly and harmless until you have no chance of defending yourself.” After a pause she offered a paw toward Justin. “My name is Alice Walker. I didn’t quite catch yours.”

Justin tilted his head. This wasn't like a timber wolf, but she wasn't like a timber wolf. He reached out a hoof to set in her paw. "I'm Justin Thyme. I was gathering herbs when the fire happened all around me. I… Is he going to be OK? He's all alone now."

Alice shook his hoof firmly before releasing it. “He’ll be fine, as long as he doesn’t come back to look for us. The others will find him soon enough, and get him back where he belongs. If he speaks to them of ghosts and talking ponies, and voices in the woods, they’ll think he had a weird dream and move on. Humans can accept that,” she said. “It’d be a shame to rip him from his family unnecessarily.”

Justin gave a slow nodding gesture. "I suppose, um, so… Are you from here? Idaho?" Idaho was clearly some foreign nation he got whisked away to. "Which way is Equestria from here?"

“I am from farther west, past those mountains. But this is my territory now,” she said, pointing in a direction with a paw. “Equestria isn’t somewhere you can walk to. Did the ghost bring you here?”

Justin quickly nodded. "Oh, yes, I think so. She said she wanted to see a pony, and she smiled, and then she was gone." He put a hoof behind his head. "I never met a ghost before. She wasn't as scary as I expected. I feel more sad for her than anything else."

“They are always sad, and only sometimes scary,” Alice confirmed. “I doubt you’ll go home until you’re a ghost yourself, though a wizard might be able to help.” The wolf started circling Justin slowly, sniffing him from snout to tail.

His tail flicked softly as the wolf circled him, a bit nervous at her attention, though she hadn't proven worth worrying over yet. "I'm an alchemist…" His words came out lamely even as he pondered the impossibility of a potion that would get him home. "If you could tell me which way Equestria is, that'd be a start."

“It isn’t any direction,” Alice said. “You’ll need magic, or you aren’t going, and my magic doesn’t do anything of that sort.” She sniffed at his saddlebags. “And I’m guessing yours doesn’t either.”

He turned to face her as he shook her head. "Um, no, it doesn't go in, uh, no direction." He frowned a bit in thought. "How can a place not be in any direction?"

Alice shrugged before sitting back a bit to face him and converse. “I suppose it could be on the other side of the sky,” she said. “But I doubt that’s much use to you, even if it’s true. Are you that eager to get home? There’s a whole other world here… or even a nice grove to settle into if you prefer. I keep it nice here, and there aren’t any other predators to get you.”

Justin suddenly stiffened before he leaned towards the canine, sniffing at her. "Are you inviting me to stay with you? That's very nice of you." He smiled, clearly tickled by the offer. "I just want to know where I am. Oh! You said you do magic? What kind?"

“Yes, I told you that you were my guest,” she said, accepting the sniffing without objection. “My magic protects this grove. I kept the fire at bay, and the water clean. I’m a shaman, like my mother before me. Was one of your parents an alchemist like you?”

Justin shook his head. "My father's a salespony, and my mother likes to write. I learned alchemy from another pony, but I love doing it." He clopped his forehooves together before they came back down to all fours. "They can do a lot of things, if you have the right plants and recipe, but a lot of the plants around here I've never seen before."

Alice seemed pleased at that last comment, taking it as a compliment apparently. “It’s kind of hard keeping curious humans away so all these different varieties can thrive, but it’s worth it. In the future, you should ask me before picking, particularly if you’re going to take the whole plant. Some of these are hard to replace, and require going amongst the humans.” She looked at him thoughtfully, tapping her chin.

Justin shook his head. "I'll be extra careful, promise. Some of the potions use the roots, those are harder to take without hurting the plant." He frowned with thought. "Do you trade with the humans?"

“Sometimes, but I have to disguise myself as one of them to do so,” Alice answered. “I’m wondering what would be the best way to hide you if you wanted to come along. I think if your flanks were covered and you didn’t talk, you could maybe pass as an ordinary pony... “

Justin's ears twitched at the thought. "Are they that bad? He seemed so nice." He looked back at his own flank, adorned as it was with his broken glass cutie mark, then he looked at Alice, who had none. Hardly surprising there, only ponies had cutie marks. "You can turn into a human? Or just put on a costume?"

“He probably was. But when he got back to the others, some news folk would probably put you on camera, and then the not nice humans would know about you, and things would get real ugly before you know it," Alice answered. "They think they're the only ones who can talk, because they've pushed the rest of us to the brink of extinction, and our only chance of staying alive is to make sure most of them continue to not believe in us."

Justin gave slow nods, even if he didn't entirely grasp it. "I see, so you got really good at pretending to be one?"

“My kind can look like a human if we try, though it makes us weak and vulnerable. Also, humans insist on wearing clothes, so I have to cover myself up like them," she said with obvious distaste. “It can be worth it, though. As I said, they can be nice. But I prefer my own fur. What about you? Is your alchemy any good for disguises?"

Justin shook himself out. "I usually wear my fur too, and some other things." He had an assortment of bags, and a bandoleer of potions and vials. "But let me see." He settled on his haunches and pulled out his book. Setting it on the ground and carefully flipping with his hooves, he frowned as he dug into the portion of the book he normally left well alone. "I'm still not a master of alchemy yet…"

"Lucky you had your book with you then," Alice commented, before stepping away to help herself to some water.

"I don't normally go harvesting myself…" His words became mumbles as he tried to pick through the thick technical jargon that infested the 'advanced' section.

Alice waited patiently for a brief time before looking over his shoulder curiously.

The book did have some recipes for changing fur and mane colors, even hiding cutie marks, not that being a ‘blank flank’ was super popular. It wouldn’t do much to hide his equine nature, though. Certainly not become a human. On reaching the end of the book, he folded it shut. "If you told me what one of the ponies around here look like, I could probably disguise as one of them, best I can do."

“Aside from the one human that saw you already, you’d really just need to hide your flank marks. They’re a bit too flashy to pass as a brand,” Alice said. “But there’s no need to hurry on that. I am surprised to see you so alert so late at night. Are you a nocturnal pony?”

Justin raised a hoof before slowly lowering it. "It was day when I... " He looked up, yep, those stars were still there in defiance of his internal clock. "I'm not keeping you up, am I?"

“I’m normally up at night,” Alice said with a shrug, “unless I’m going to trade with the humans. I’m guessing you prefer being up in the day though. You’ll probably get tired in the morning as it is.”

Justin looked unsure a moment before he nodded. "If we're roommates now, I'll stay up with you, and we'll both go to bed at the same time. If I'm up by myself…" Well, what would he do, other than be alone. "I'm going to get the dyeing potions ready, what colors do I need?"

Alice looked him over. “It wouldn’t hurt to be browner, or blonder like your mane. You’re a bit red for an ordinary pony. Do you need anything? I can help you find the herbs.”

The book was consulted before Justin checked his stock. "That's an easy color. Can you get a clove or two?" He got right to work, mixing and grinding with that happy look he got when making things.

Alice nodded before padding off into the darkness. She was gone about a minute before returning with a mouthful of cloves to offer him. She couldn’t help but give a bit of a laugh when she offered them to him.

"Thank you." He leaned in to accept the cloves, practically kissing her as he took the cloves from her snout into his own and tossing them right into the bowl to grind away at. "What's so funny?"

She stiffened a bit as they exchanged the plant matter, before looking away, and wagging lightly. “Nothing,” she insisted. “Need anything else?”

Justin tapped at his chin with a hoof, "I could really go for a hayburger… What do you eat out here? Please don't say pony."

“I can honestly say I’ve never eaten a pony,” Alice said, raising a paw solemnly. “Though I do mostly eat meat. I don’t know how to make a hayburger, but I can try to get you something as close as I can from the humans at some point. Anything… simpler? Preferably something that doesn’t need to be cooked.”

Justin frowned as he returned his hooves to the effort of mixing. "A salad would work. Something nice and colorful. I know some ponies talk about greens, but bah, all the good stuff's in all the other colors! Purples, reds, so many.." He set the pestle aside and slowly swished around the stuff in the bowl carefully.

“Purples? That almost sounds like flowers… do you eat flowers?” Alice said, curiously. He was an actual herbivore, so surely his sense of what made sense to eat wouldn’t match a wolf’s or a human’s.

"Some flowers are very good," agreed Justin as he bottled up his creation and went on to the next. "Today's a busy day! I never made so many potions in a day, except that one time… That joke didn't end well, um, except for me. I guess it worked out for me."

“Got it, so just flowers, no greens?” Alice confirmed, “or some of each?”

Justin perked an ear. "Both are good. Please, don't go out of your way for me. I don't want to be a rude guest." He pushed up to his hooves. "Can I help?"

“Well, I don’t want to be a rude host,” Alice countered. “Just wait right here, and I’ll be back as soon as I can.” And with that she was gone, black fur blending into the darkness easily.

... than taking what's yours. (Clop)

“I don’t want to let you go. I don’t want to be alone anymore. Am I being too greedy? I don’t want this moment to end..." she replied. "What do you want?"

He suddenly pushed and rolled up on top of her with his tail wagging. "I believe in destiny. I was brought here for a reason. Maybe that reason is you." He leaned in. "If I get pulled back home tomorrow, I like to think you'll get sucked back with me. We only just met, but I…" He paused a moment, then burst into a giggle. "I think I'm a romantic sap. Do you like those?"

“I think so," she said, wagging underneath him. “Especially if they are brave and confident and not afraid to claim what's theirs. Do you like strong, protective types who won't ever let you go?"

He flashed a smile. "If that means you'll put me out when I catch on fire." His eyes rolled. "Again." Easily accepting the idea that theirs was a fated meeting, however odd, he nestled between her legs and snuggled against her. "You'll have to dress-up nice to meet my parents."

“Agreed. Though all my clothes are human clothes. Do ponies wear clothes?" They talked, so why not? Though werewolves talked, but weren't much for clothing if they had their fur showing. “I’m really good at stopping fires," she added.

He squirmed a moment, feeling ready despite feeling a bit silly at his conversation. "We do, sometimes." He took a slow breath, then backed up just enough to line himself up with the female. "A-are.." He trailed off, remembering what she said. He clenched his teeth then moved to pry into her with his equine member. No more questions.

She gave a deep grunt as his broad, flat tip pushed into her, before nodding to his unfinished question. "You don’t have to go easy, I can take it." She was pretty damned tight, practically a virgin, aside from the missing seal and relative lack of uncertainty.

With the act begun, Justin became focused on it, pushing in to the hilt in the wolf and softly biting into the fur of her chest and up towards her neck as he pulled out and thrust forward in short little motions, feeling and teasing her insides as his shaft throbbed, eager to perform its duty.

“Gaia, you're huge!" Alice gasped out, as he filled her deeply with his girth. She was moist to begin with, but quickly got slicker as she was forced to accommodate the thick member. She laid her head back, exposing her neck for him and moaning deeply.

He took that neck and bit into it. His words were lost in the passion of the rutting as he rocked against her, taking her and claiming her. His hooves squeezed at the wolf, even as some small part of his mind squealed in excitement and terror that he was breeding something that would not be wrong for thinking him dinner.

With that bite there, any thoughts about him not being a wolf fled her mind. She wrapped her legs around his hips, thrusting into his rutting, and she lost herself in the pleasure of her new mate. Her neck wound sealed the moment his teeth withdrew from her, leaving only the faintest taste of her blood behind.

The taste of blood was largely foreign to him and Justin snorted as other things distracted him completely. He became one with his lover, embedding himself in her flexing passage and starting to fire thick jets up along her passage with a loud neigh. His hind legs twitched and kicked at the ground as he consummated their relationship, only to sag against her, weakly pushing into her.

Alice lay back, panting as she closed her eyes, feeling the warmth deep within her. “That was…” she snuggled him tightly, at a loss for words. She started licking his neck and even gently nibbled. “May I?...”

Instinctive terror mixed with the laziness of post-coital in a strange mix in the stallion. He leaned his head back and offered it to the wolf. If she'd turn on him, he'd die contently, at least.

Fortunately, she only barely broke his skin, before licking the wound clean. But even that brief bite was enough to let a strange pulse of magic flow into and through him, permeating his body before becoming completely imperceptible. “Mine, forever,” she said, satisfied in more ways than one.

He snorted as a wild stallion before rearing up over her. He wasn't sure what happened, but it felt important. Struggling against the sluggishness, he drew from her in a wet pull and sat up. "Forever is a long time." He smiled at her. "You may get bored of me eventually."

“Wolves mate for life,” she insisted, before sitting up herself. She couldn’t help but eye his cum-slicked cock, however. She had bled on him a bit down there, as well, but didn’t seem bothered by it, more focused on his medial ring. “If I get bored, we’ll be boringly content with one another.”

He laughed at her words. "Boringly content. I like that." He rose up only to lean in and nuzzle at her, his bits wagging as well as his tail with his movements. He didn't notice the blood until he sat back and looked down at himself. "Are you alright?" That was his first reaction, worry shown.

“I’m fine. You aren’t a wolf like me, or made of silver, so it’s already healed. Like my shoulder,” she said. Sure enough, there were just a few dried flecks of blood where he’d bit, no sign of actual injury. Even the fur had straightened itself. “But it’s sweet of you to worry.~”

Justin Thyme reached for her, pulling her up to her paws. "Are you sure you're OK with a pony for a husband?" He smiled at her. "I'll be there, promise. You're stuck with me until you tell me otherwise."

“Forever,” she insisted. “I already marked you, it’s too late for doubts. Besides… I really like that… what do you call it?” she poked his medial ring with her blunt claw, gently. “Anyways, why wouldn’t I? What’s wrong with ponies? I mean… talking ones, anyways.”

The touch made him sit up. The member twitched and he grunted, already regaining a bit of stiffness. "That is…" Ugh, biology. "My ring. It's your ring now. Not as romantic as a wedding ring, but it does more work, doesn't it?"

Alice wagged. “Are you actually up for more?” she asked, a bit surprised.

He pointed ahead of himself. "This time, pony style, standing, if you'd like? Um, seriously, if you're tired, sleep is also good."

Alice eagerly stood, turning from him and lifting her tail. “I’m not tired yet, the sun isn’t even up yet.”

He slid in over her and brought a hoof up under her to hug her to his barrel as he sank into her warm depths, grunting with the pleasure of it. "Is it wrong that you're better than most of the mares I've ever been with?" He thrust against that tightness. "So… tight. You're sure this doesn't hurt?"

“It feels good,” she insisted, focusing on the feeling and managing to squeeze even tighter, before relaxing a bit. “And your wife ought to be the best one you’ve ever been with,” she pointed out. She braced herself firmly, letting him handle the movements while she closed her eyes, focusing on the pleasure and getting a better handle on those unfamiliar muscles. She was much slicker from the beginning this time, but still a nice, tight fit.

The second time, Justin took his time with her. He wasn't rutting, he was making love properly. He pulled her gently back against himself and cuddled even as he moved against her. His teeth found the back of her neck and along her shoulder in gentle nibbles as he squeezed her. "Destiny was very kind to me today," he breathed out, but was otherwise quiet as he focused on being a good lover to his exotic new wife, ignoring the many questions that demanded answers, for the time.

She savored every minute of it, especially the nibbles. At least until she began to draw close, and started growing impatient, urging him on. It wasn’t much longer before she howled out loudly, pleasure washing over her body as it tried to draw a second filling from him. She pushed back desperately into him, drawing out the process until she was too exhausted to continue and collapsed beneath him.

Justin was not a virgin foal, but the rhythim pulls of his new mate were enough to draw him over, and he collapsed with her even as he fulfilled her desire. Panting for breath, he curled up with her, sprawled over her back comfortably. "You were lovely." He nipped into her back. "I'm not sure if I'm to stay here, or you to come with me, but either way has lost its… bite right now."

“As long as we’re together," Alice agreed. She gave something almost like a purr before falling asleep beneath him. Justin was asleep soon thereafter, resting peacefully atop the warm fur.

... than doing Science!

As noon approached, the light was enough to wake him despite the relatively small number of hours they had slept. Alice was still sleeping soundly, until his movements roused her, eliciting an unhappy growl.

Peace made or not, Justin erred on the side of safety and nuzzled his growling mate. "Just waking up." He considered saying more, but opted to try to slip away and let her decide if she wanted to chat or get more sleep. He had science to do!

"Huh? Oh... oh! Sorry..." Alice managed before a yawn silenced her. "I'm not used to being woken... I didn't mean to... sorry." Apologies accomplished she seemed about to fall asleep again.

Justin hesitated a moment, then kissed her cheek before dashing off, to make it clear no hard feelings were present. As soon as he slipped away though, out came his supplies and he got right to work mixing and heating, er… Well, that was the idea. Fire still refused to obey, so heating was out, but mixing, grinding, and other such things were waiting to be done with glee.

Hours slipped away, as science was done, until the late afternoon, when Alice finally sought him out. “What are you up to my studly stallion?" She said, after setting a bowl of flowery salad before him.

The compliment brought a light tinge of red to his fuzzy cheeks as he directed a hoof at one collection of plants. "These have a mild irritant that cause skin rashes on direct exposure, do be mindful." He had a rash right on his nose, where he had played with poison ivy and tried to get magic out of it to mixed results. "It's all so fascinating!"

Alice giggled. “Yes, I was familiar with that one. I sometimes use those to drive off overly curious children. A painful rash causes less trouble than a wolf sighting. Did you make anything useful?"

He bobbed his head and pointed to a pile of smoldering rock beside him. "I made this!" He flashed a bright smile. "It was amazing! I put some of this, with this." He pointed to the herbs he had collected. "Mixed it for exactly twelve seconds. Any longer or shorter and it didn't work quite right, but do it just that long, pour, and boom, lava! I'm… not exactly sure what I'd use that for, but think of it!"

Alice looked dumbfounded for a bit, before shaking her head. “You are definitely amazing, Justin. Do you want to take a break?"

He only just then noticed the salad placed near him and reached for it. "I think that would be a good idea, thank you." He placed the bowl between his legs as he sat and buried his face in it, munching with loud happy crunches.

She rubbed his back lightly with a paw as he ate, before an impulse came over her and she was soon stroking his back with a human hand, scratching lightly along his mane. She was human now, much like the little girl but alive, naked, taller, and much fuller chested... her skin was a very light tan, her hair a darker brown, and eyes the very same as they had been. Loving. Possessive.

The soft petting was met with a little rumble at first, but as it became a hand and mussed through his mane, his ears went up curiously. He turned towards her and gasped softly. "A-are you that? I mean." He cycled his hooves through the air, failing to make sounds.

Alice giggled. “It’s still me, Justin," she confirmed. Her voice was much softer, less growly. “Do you like it? This is how I can disguise myself. Though I need clothes to go into town."

Justin leaned in and gently nuzzled the female, inhaling her scent while he was close to see if she still smelled of his new wife or not. "It's still you, I mean, right? It's just… you look just like that girl, the one that was… I couldn't help her, but to be here, I guess…"

The wolfy smell lingered on her, so she was quite recognizable to her stallion. Different, but familiar. “You mean the ghost... you still have her totem... I think you could call her again if you tried. She lived near here, but I never got to know her well."

He pointed at her, then waved the hoof up and down at her. "You look like her." The fact that all humans were hard to tell apart didn't help, though some parts of her were very clearly different than the parts on the male he had met, starting with a lot less clothes. "Are you related?"

It was kind of weirdly refreshing when she realized she could sit in front of her husband naked in human form without it automatically become a sexual thing... but also a bit frustrating to be likened to a little girl like that. "No, I don’t think so. I don’t have any relatives out here. You... I need to get you into town one of these days so you can learn to tell one human from another. Might need a muzzle on you, though, so you don’t accidentally reveal yourself..." she grinned at the thought, mostly because it wouldn’t be her this time.

His snout contorted with surprise and he stiffened. "I can be quiet if I want to." He turned up his nose, but it quickly came back down to look her over with all the more curiosity. "What are those?" He pointed directly at her breasts. "Is that normal? Are you hurt?" It could be an injury, or so he thought. He wasn't sure what else they could be.

“Am I?" she looked down in alarm, before realizing where he was pointing. She giggled when she figured it out. “No, no. Those are my mammaries... mares have those too, right? In humans they're higher and more pronounced. And..." she blushed a bit. “They can be nice for... foreplay? As my husband, they're yours to touch, if you like... anytime we’re alone. Just be gentle... I am easier to injure in this form, and not used to being touched like that..."

"Mamm--Oh!" He jerked upright at the realization. "But… they're in the wrong place, and they're… are you with a foal already? I didn't realize!" He looked quite embarrassed indeed and began looking around as if some small child may appear at any moment.

Alice giggled quite a bit, and scratched behind Justin's ears. “Silly stallion. Humans grow them out a bit in advance, to show their health and fertility. They get a bit bigger before giving birth, though."

He tapped his chin softly. "So they're… always like that? That's fascinating. We don't do that, ponies that is." He rose to his hooves. "And I'm a stallion, so I don't do that at all. You don't mind, I hope?" He thought back to the male, did he have breasts? He didn't remember any.

“That’s fine, Justin. They are just a female, thing, anyways. They show I'll be able to feed our foals well when they do come," she explained. No need to wonder out loud if they were compatible that way. It would prove itself in time, and if not... there was magic for that kind of thing, if she could find the right kind of mage. "Hmmm... as a stallion, do you have any parts you particularly like to be touched, aside from the big long one down below?" she asked as her hands roved over his soft fur.

A bright blush swept up over his face at the question. "L-like that? I mean,.. It's about friendship, and being together, you know?" He reached a hoof for her and brushed her cheek. "Wherever you… I mean…" Gosh, where did he not like being touched? Maybe that was easier. "Ponies don't like poking in the eyes or in the mouth, that would be a bit weird I guess. The rest's mostly OK?" Smooth. He looked a bit sheepish.

The hoof was a bit hard to be caressed with, but the mighty werewolf didn't mind. “No eyes, agreed. The mouth can be fun though," she objected, pulling his hoof into her mouth and nibbling playfully for a moment. “I promise not to eat you."

He paused a moment before he realized she was being playful and he smiled. He felt at her tongue and allowed her to gently nibble at his hoof. Unlike at first blush, he had plenty of sensitive flesh behind that, lining the area all around his 'palm' past that solid wall. "I trust you."

She nodded, before kissing him on the snout. “Trust is good, and friendship is good too… hmm… oh! We should go check on my friend, Amelia. As soon as the sun goes down. I’ll go get ready! She’s already been bound, so it’s okay if she knows about you.” She was soon off, heading back toward her den to fetch something.

Justin rose up fully and stretched out as she headed off. When she returned, he tilted his head. "Did I miss who Amelia is? I'd like to meet your friends though. Is she a wolf like you? A pony? Human?"

Alice was still disguised as a human, but now had a dirt covered blouse and blue jeans on her. “Amelia is a human, but she knows about me, and other stuff... and knows not to tell others. She’s a good human," Alice said. "I warded her house before the fires got here, but she still had to evacuate. She might not be home yet. But we'll try."

He nodded quickly. "Alright. So she should look like you did?" He gestured at Alice. "And less like the fellow I rescued then? I hope he turned out alright." He tapped his chin thoughtfully before his hoof touched a bit of the rash and he winced a moment. "I have to be mindful of that."

“Oh! I’m so sorry!" Alice apologized, before rushing off again. She brought back a different leaf and held it against his rash. "Please help him heal," she asked the leaf, and it glowed green a moment before the rash started to fade.

He crossed his eyes, trying to see what was happening. "You're an alchemist too?!" His hooves reached up quickly to peer at the curative leaf, taking in its details and memorizing it. "I wonder if I could incorporate this into a curative brew…" It took a moment before he folded his ears back. "Oh! Sorry, thank you."

She shook her head. “Not an alchemist, a shaman. I just asked its spirit to help you. It probably would be good for that though. They like to help. I'll help you find some later."

The idea of a new healing plant seemed to excite Justin quite a bit and he clopped his forehooves together. "Thank you, um, dear? Hon?" He paused. "Now I just sound silly."

"What's silly about it?" Alice asked as she led the way towards the edge of the grove. “I guess we both need to get used to pet names... snugglehooves? Is that one too silly?"

A little giggle escaped him. "Is that an offer? Seriously though, we should probably meet that friend of yours." He shook himself out from head to tail and looked ready to travel.

“I’m yours to snuggle anytime, Snugglehooves~” Alice said. And before long she took a moment to prove it, pulling him down into a snuggle as they were just in sight of the treeline, able to see the scorched wasteland beyond, and the sun slowly sinking behind distant hills. It didn’t look like there was anyone to see them, but she was unwilling to take the risk. In the distance, a single, lonely, white house stood, surrounded by a patch of healthy green grass, in stark contrast to the burned out ruins that dotted the rest of their view.

... than being a good neighbor.

Justin squeaked before bursting into laughter at being pulled to the ground by the amorous canine. He wrestled with her in a fond cuddling before he fought back to his hooves and looked out across all the ashes and soot. "Is this normal? It looks awful from here."

“No. The fires the last few days… weeks really, but they’ve only just gotten here. I protected what I could, but I can only protect my territory. If I could protect the whole area, I would,” Alice said sadly. “But it will regrow. The ash is nutritious to plants, and they’ll use it to grow the next generation, from the seeds hidden safely below the surface, and new seeds to come. Gaia is set back by flames, but never truly defeated.”

Justin Thyme raised an ear at her. "Gaia? But yes, that's quite logical. You have a solid bed of fertilizer right here, but it's quite a mess, and you don't even have any earth ponies like me to help encourage the next generation of trees or anything."

“You can do that, too?” Alice asked him, curiously. “Oh, Gaia is the spirit of this world, the spirit of nature itself. The mother of all life. Well, perhaps not you?”

He shook his head. "We have a princess for the day and the night, and one for love, and friendship, but none of them represent nature, as a thing." He stepped out onto the ash carefully and gently scraped at it with a hoof, "I'm not really a farmer, but I have done it before…" Scrape scrape scrape.

Alice cocked her head and watched, slipping out onto the ash with him, and glancing around. The sun was going down. That was good. A pair of headlights were visible in the distance, heading towards the lone, standing house. Amelia? Probably. In any case, she was safely disguised as a human, and could probably deal with anyone who showed up.

It was both, perhaps, underwhelming and a small miracle, but as the earth pony pawed away at the ground with thoughts of green and life, his life force gently flowed and mixed with the ground, seeking out the seed closest to breaking free and fortifying it. He felt the urge to raise his hoof up, and a sprout came up partly with it, penetrating the ash by several inches, promising new life.

Alice laughed happily. “That’s pretty good, Justin! It took me years to learn how to do anything like that. Maybe I’ll have you help me restore this area. But first, let’s go see Amelia. I think I saw her truck driving toward her house.”

He nodded in agreement and moved to follow after Alice even as he filled with questions. "Encouraging plants to grow is in our nature. Alchemy is what took a long time to do. They say unicorns are better at it, but they say unicorns are better at all kinds of magic. I think alchemy's made for us ground types."

Alice led the way, but walking side by side, so she could keep a hand on his neck, lightly gripping his mane. It was a good mile, mostly flat across the ash. A bit of a hike, but nothing too bad. When they reached the house, the distinct, strong smell of wolf-piss greeted Justin’s nose, making him instinctively nervous. This was a predator’s domain, very clearly marked. The fact that it was his wife’s scent took longer to make out specifically, even if he had been told before hand.

Walking along beside a human was a curious and novel experience, especially with a hand on his mane. There weren't many opportunities for that, unless one had friends or enemies among the minotaurs or diamond dogs. The wash of the new scent made him nervous a moment, even if he didn't know why it did. "Is she expecting us?"

“No, especially not you. But you’ll be a pleasant enough surprise. Don’t say a word until I introduce you, though, okay?” Alice requested before getting to the door and knocking twice, followed by a push of a button beside the door.

There was footsteps audible from the other side for a few seconds, before a delay. Then the lock slid open, and a woman opened the door. The clothing looked similar between the two, the blouses different colors, and the clothes fit this new woman better, like they were made for her. She was a bit more heavy set than Alice, but not exactly overweight.

“Alice! Good to see you. Come in… umm… pony? He doesn’t look injured… so why a pony?” She said, getting out of the way so her guests could enter.

Alice led the way to a couch within, sitting on one end, and tapping on the middle for Justin to join her, which seemed to annoy Amelia a little bit. Once the front door was closed, she finally spoke up. “This is my new husband, Justin Thyme. Justin, say hello to Amelia.”

He sprung alert on being prompted. "Hello!" He smiled with his big flat teeth at Amelia. "It's really nice to meet you." His tail wagged with eager meeting and fond wishes so far, even as he worried about her reaction.

“I, what, even... what the hell, Alice?!" Amelia began, before pinching her nose and rubbing for a few seconds. "Sorry, let me start over. Hello, Justin. Nice to meet you. Are you from around here?" She took a seat opposite the couch.

Justin quickly shook his head. "From what I hear, there aren't ponies like me around here." He put a hoof to his chest. "I hope I haven't startled you too badly. I'm glad to see you made it through the fire. It was quite a mess."

“Thank you, Justin,” Amelia began. “I expect Alice would have mentioned it if there were many ponies like you around. Though I also expected she would have mentioned when she started dating, instead of only just bringing it up after she got married. Have you two been seeing each other long?”

“You know me, Amy… I’m not one to take too long making a decision,” Alice said, gently stroking Justin’s neck. “We just met last night. A ghost brought him here… from another world, I think? Her name was… what was it again? The little girl from a few miles over. She really wanted to meet a pony, so she snagged Justin here. Lucky for me!”

Justin's ears colored as his rapid-pace romance was brought to light. "I might have gotten carried away a little, but." He waved a hoof at Alice. "She really is great, isn't she?" He flashed a smile that practically screamed a hope that it wouldn't be pried into too far.

“She is pretty great, if you can put up with the smells,” Amelia said, teasingly. Turning to Alice she asked “I know you said you had to mark the house to put up the ward, and I’m not that surprised by how you did it, but did you have to do it that much? I could smell it from a mile away, with the windows rolled up.”

Alice looked a bit embarrassed. “I wanted to be completely sure. It’ll fade in time. And look, your house is still standing! No complaining, you!”

Justin glanced towards the outside. He could smell it just fine, but insulting his girlfriend/wife/mate seemed like a poor idea. "I'm just glad you're alright. How long have you lived here?"

“All my life, actually,” Amelia said. “Much longer than I’ve known Alice. I didn’t meet her until after my parents passed away, and I had the place to myself. She’s helped me with a lot of things, and in exchange I help her out with things like getting into town, or storing most of her human things. And doing her laundry.”

“The detergent makes me sneeze!” Alice defended. “And stop being so mean to me in front of my husband!”

His ears twitched softly. "I'm glad to hear that, that you know that is. I wasn't sure how much I should talk about it. The last human I met got very scared." He pawed at the air with a hoof. "May I have a drink?"

“Certainly,” Amelia said, climbing to her feet. “I have water, milk, orange juice, diet coke, or scotch. I guess under the circumstances, I could be persuaded to open a bottle of wine.”

“Do you have alcohol where you come from?” Alice asked Justin, curiously.

Justin tilted his head at seeing Amelia's backside. "You don't have a tail," he noted with some bit of surprise. Had he not noticed until then? "It didn't get burned off did it? That's awful!"

“Huh?” Amelia asked, before laughing a bit, and wiggling her butt. “Humans don’t have tails, silly. Our tailbones end just under the skin back there. So what to drink?”

Justin leaned in to look at Amelia's back, but he could see nowhere the tail should be, just a butt, covered in clothing at that. "I think I'd be confused if I didn't have a tail." He wagged his own. "I'll have that milk if you're still offering."

While Amelia left for the kitchen, and started working on beverages, Alice used that opportunity to shift her position and pull her clothing out of the way, mooning Justin. “No tail, see? And it really is confusing, especially when I really want to wag. But regular humans don’t know what they’re missing, so they don’t miss it. Well, usually. I’m sure I’ve seen a few of them trying to wag, even without the parts to do so properly. But it’s so much harder to read that body language, right?” she said over her shoulder.

Justin Thyme bobbed his head with agreement with Alice. "I feel bad for them, lacking such an obvious part like that, but I guess it's OK. Like you said, they don't know what they're missing, so it works out. I never flew before, so I can't really get that jealous about pegasi. It's for the best."

“I miss my hands, sometimes, when I’m my wolfie self,” Alice said with a shrug. “Except when I’m both… but I have to be careful with that, it’s way too troublesome to be seen like that. So I don’t usually get to have a tail and hands at the same time.”

Amelia came back with a trio of glasses, setting down a glass of milk before Justin, a glass of orange juice for Alice, and then sitting back with a smaller glass of scotch for herself. “Oh! I forgot to ask, are you good with glasses, Justin? I don’t know how you would pick it up with those hooves of yours.”

Justin reached for the glass and pulled it closer. "It's a trick all earth ponies learn before they get very large." He leaned in and grasped the lip in his teeth while carefully lifting the glass, and soon he's getting most of the milk into his snout. Most of it… He set the half drained cup down and wiped off his snout with a fetlock. "It tastes a little different, but this is a whole new world."

“What do you get your milk from?” Amelia asked, curiously, as she nursed her drink. Definitely a scotch day. It wasn’t the most world-shattering meeting she’d had with Alice, but it was right up there. “We get ours from cows, though we also do a bit of processing to it… heat it up to kill the bacteria, so it doesn’t go bad as quickly, and remove a bit of the fat from it.”

Justin tilted his head. "We have cows too, but none of those other things. You, uh, you know, I never went to a farm, but I'm told you have to be very polite to them. They're gentle creatures, easily scared or upset." He tapped his glass. "Are they like the ponies here, mute and dumb?"

Alice nodded. “Yes. Though they are as you said, gentle creatures, but easily enough scared or upset. And with their size and strength, they can be very dangerous, especially in numbers. They’re not mean… well, the bulls can be. But they can do a lot of damage in a panic. And they don’t like wolves much,” she pouted the last bit.

“I thought you got along with them well?” Amelia asked.

“Yes, after a few rough incidents. And they never stopped insulting me,” Alice said.

Justin looked at Alice curiously. "So you can talk to them then? I thought I was the only, um, I guess besides wolves?" He really didn't know.

“I’m a shaman, so I can understand animals, even if they don’t have a proper language, like humans or your kind of ponies,” Alice said. “Like with the squirrels in my grove. And I can get them to understand me. But it takes a bit of magic. And it can be hard when they’re afraid I’m going to try to bite them.”

Justin nodded slowly as understand came. "How do you do magic? You don't have a horn. Do you do alchemy?" He reached back and plucked one of the vials hanging from his belt and set it on the table. "I didn't see supplies for that."

“Mmm, it's all about being in harmony with nature, opening your senses to it, and letting it hear your heart," Alice said. “I don't think humans can learn it, maybe you could though? You are a lot more in harmony with nature than they are."

Amelia looked at Justin thoughtfully, peering at his cutie mark, then suppressing a giggling fit.

Justin looked curiously at Alice before he noticed Amelia peering, the giggling had his ears turning towards her. "What's wrong?" He looked back at his own flank, which seemed as well in order as he could hope. "What?"

“He’s a My Little Pony,” Amelia said with mirth. “Oh, I have to show him!" With that she ran upstairs, giggling as she went.

... than paying your taxes.

Justin returned his gaze to Alice. "I'm not 'a' 'her' little pony. That doesn't make sense. If I was anyone's pony, I'd be yours." He picked up the vial he set on the table. "Do you know what she's talking about?"

Alice looked just as confused. “No, I think it's some kind of human thing. I don't spend that much time around them, even Amy."

Justin softly tapped the ground with a tail slap. "You should, she seems nice. Not as pretty as you are, of course, but nice." A little flattery from the stallion came with a warm smile.

Alice smiled back, stroking his mane again. Flattery was never amiss with her. "She is a good friend, and I don’t regret bringing her past the veil. The one who was with you... he seemed nice, too. But he needed to go back to his family."

Justin didn't understand that entirely, but nodded despite it. "I hope he made it alright… You scared me too you know!" He leaned into the petting even as he vented. "I thought you were going to eat me up and… Well, I'm glad it worked out this way instead."

“I’m sorry I scared you,” she said, kissing his nose. “But you belong behind the veil, like me. Hidden from humans. Most of them anyways. I won’t let them hurt you… I won’t let anyone hurt you.” She gave him a fierce hug, and held it until she heard Amelia’s footsteps coming down the stairs.

“Okay, okay. Here we go…” Amelia said as she took a rectangular grey device and attached it by a few wires to a big black rectangle on the wall. With a bit of that peculiar human magic that is technology, she made a field of icons appear on both, then soon replaced them with a splash screen declaring “My Little Pony” and “Friendship is Magic”. “Are you ready to have your mind blown?” she asked the pony on her couch.

Perking up and leaning in, he tried to get a better look at that odd device, even if it meant leaving that wonderful hug from his recently-acquired mate. "I doubt it could do anything that… impressive?" Even if he wasn't sure what it was. "Please, show me." He leaned back towards Alice and whispered, "I trust you."

“Scooch,” Amelia said as she approached the couch, even as the theme song began to play. She gently pushed Justin’s rump aside, pushing him more toward Alice as she took a seat beside him, leaving the stallion between the two females. “I figured I’d make it simple and start from the beginning,” she said cryptically enough, as the pilot episode began, with the unicorn Twilight Sparkle excitedly trying to convince Princess Celestia of the impending threat of Nightmare Moon.

“It’s… a cartoon,” Alice said eventually, underwhelmed, and not really making the connection.

It was more than that for Justin, who leaned in and peered at the curiously simplified versions of his people, but they were ponies he knew from tale and hearsay. "Is that Princess Sparkle? And Celestia?" He suddenly looked away. "I feel like I'm spying on them. They're obviously having a private conversation. Oh sweet Celestia, can she hear me?"

“No, they can’t hear you. This is a… uh. Recording. Or more like a play, I guess? I have no idea how accurate it is,” Amelia said. “It’s way before Twilight was a Princess, though. I could skip to the episode where she becomes a Princess if you like? This one was about Nightmare Moon making the night last forever, until the Element bearers were able to stop her, and restore her to being Princess Luna again.”

Alice looked confused about that whole thing, like it was all going over her head. “Is any of that making sense to you, Justin?”

Justin reached for the thing, gently running a hoof over the screen to confirm he couldn't touch the ponies displayed on it with the greatest of care. "It's amazing… That looks like them, mostly. They're a little… It's like someone saw them in a dream and drew them down, rather than an actual photograph, but I can recognize them both easily. They're both still resplendent in their own way."

“That sounds about right… maybe even close to what really happened?” Amelia mused. “You know more about this kind of stuff than I do, Alice, what do you think?”

“I don’t know anything about cartoons!” Alice objected. “Oh! Umm… Justin, do you still have that little pony totem from the ghost? You should show her. Maybe she’ll recognize it.”

Justin turned on himself and buried his snout into a pouch to pull out the little pony doll he had been given and set it carefully on the table. "Here. A ghost gave it to me. Poor girl…"

“Applejack,” Amelia recognized instantly, reaching for the doll. After a quick perusal, she noted the name scratched into it, easily visible with the ash still embedded in the indention. “‘Isabelle’? Oh! I remember her… Isabelle Martin, from the house up the road. She’s? Oh... “ she handed the doll back, looking sad and tearing up a bit.

Alice nodded. “She must have been caught in the fires. She should have been evacuated, like everyone else. I wonder why she didn’t make it out.”

Justin's attention turned to the sad female more than the mystery of the girl, and he put a hoof gently on her. "I'm so very sorry. She was… she was happy to see me, and she was satisfied when she went. I know it's not the same, but you should know that at least."

Amelia held that hoof as she sniffled gently for a few minutes, before looked up into his big round eyes. “Thanks Justin. You’re such a sweetheart. Alice is lucky to have you. I didn't know her that well, it's just sad that she passed so young."

Alice placed a hand on Amelia's other shoulder. “You’re a sweetheart too, Amy."

Justin gently nudged the little toy. "Was this important to her? I feel very honored to be trusted with it. What should I do with it, besides take care of it?"

“I think it’s still linked to her,” Alice said. “I’m trying to remember how it works. If you have a ghost’s totem, you can call them to you. Otherwise, they usually don’t show themselves too often. They just kind of… watch.” Alice blushed a little, considering the implications.

Justin's cheek flushed, showing red through the fur, or did the fur actually turn red? "Oh… my. I didn't know that. I hope…" He quieted himself with a soft cough. "Wherever she is, she's clearly loved, and I'll take care of it." He reached for the pony and nuzzled it before moving to put it away.

Amelia looked between the two of them, and then decided she didn’t want to think about whatever was making them both blush. So she coughed to change the subject. “So… did you two want to head into town in the next few days? I’ve got a lot of work to do trying to get my yard back in order, and I could certainly use help with that, but it’s going to be depressing hanging out out here all the time.”

Alice gave it some thought. “We’ve been working on how to disguise Justin so he doesn’t stand out, mostly just need to keep his cutie mark hidden. What do you think?”

Justin raised a hoof quickly. "I'm good with plants. I'd be delighted to help with your lawn. Alice's area was unharmed and I have a few potions that are good for just this sort of thing. I just need one sample of the plant you want to get growing all over."

Amelia thought about it a bit. “Do you like hay? I know there’s a fair number of horses in this region that are gonna have a bit of trouble getting feed in the next few months. If we could get some of that going, I can find buyers really easily, and you’re welcome to some, if you like? Regardless, I can pay you both for your help. I know Alice doesn’t usually have many expenses, but she has trouble getting people to pay her as well.”

“Do ponies use money?” Alice asked Justin, curiously. “I can take care of myself without it, except for the property taxes. But it’s nice to be able to buy human things sometimes.”

Justin swiveled an ear towards Alice before nodding at Amelia. "I can eat hay. Prepared properly, it's quite delicious, but I'm guessing you don't from the way you said that. I'll show you a hay burger, but I'm not the best at making them, um, we had money." He nuzzled into his pouch and pulled out a golden bit and set it down for inspection.

“Is that real gold?” Amelia asked him, eyeing the coin with a hint of greed, before shaking herself. “Do you have many of those? Gold is worth quite a lot right now, and you can probably sell them for more than you think.”

Justin tilted his head. "This is a bit. It's made of gold, yes. I only have a few." He dug out a pouch and it slipped to the table with a heavy jingle. There were about ten coins within as he quickly revealed.

Amelia thought about it a moment, and considered the look Alice was giving her. “You probably can’t get what they’re worth out in these parts. I’ll do a bit of research tomorrow. But I should be able to figure out someone you can sell them to, when you have a chance.” She was talking to Alice directly, choosing her words carefully. The werewolf nodded, apparently satisfied.

Justin smiled. "Please, get what you can with them. It's the least I can do for being so polite. I doubt I could walk into a store with these anyway, with ponies being so… rare." He tilted his head at Amelia. "I don't look that strange, do I?"

“Your cutie mark really stands out, though if we had to we could probably get people to believe it’s dyed on. That’s probably what people would guess anyways. Your eyes are kind of… really, really big. It’s cute! But anyone who’s been around horses much, let alone actual ponies, would certainly notice,” Amelia said. “You could probably still go around town with Alice like this and as long as you don’t talk, people wouldn’t be sure of anything enough to make trouble.”

Justin looked back to his flank, then shrugged. "Why not just cover it? If you have some pants for me to wear, Nopony would see the mark at all, problem solved."

Amelia giggled. “Pants on a pony would draw more looks than the cutie mark. Though a simple blanket would go unnoticed… especially if you don’t mind wearing a saddle. If you did that, of course, you might end up being asked to carry small children around for a bit.”

Justin looked baffled a bit. "I've given rides to foals before. It would be the same thing, right? I can do that. I never owned a saddle myself. I mean, only ponies that give rides often need one."

Amelia giggled quite emphatically at the thought of a pony riding another pony’s back. “I suppose that’s not that different from a ‘piggy-back ride’, but it still seems really silly to me,” she said in answer to Alice’s look.

“So… a blanket, and perhaps a saddle? His saddlebags are already well fitted to him. I… I’m not going to have him wear a bit, or anything like that. There’s no need, and it’d only be insulting,” Alice decided.

“Of course not,” Amelia agreed. “Besides everyone already thinks you’re weird about animals that way, no one will second guess it.”

Justin tilted his head. "I've seen some ponies wear those things. You're talking about the things that go in your mouth, right? They're very popular in Saddle Arabia."

“I doubt they’re actually used there. They’re to allow a rider to tell the, uh, pony which way to turn. A smart pony like you shouldn’t need one, though I suppose if you had a regular rider, you might still appreciate the easy means of communication,” Amelia said before shrugging. “Not that Alice would get you one.”

He blushed gently as he looked over Alice. "If she wanted a ride, I would gladly give one, but I think she's a bit too large, and I'm a bit too small to make that comfortable." He rose with a wagging tail. "But before we try that--" His speech was interrupted as the elements of harmony were suddenly brought into existence and used in the show and he stared at them all. "Amazing…"

The girls got quiet for a bit, as they got caught up watching the rest of the episode together.

"Why is she so small?" He pointed to the tiny Luna that Celestia hugged. "She's smaller than Celestia, sure, but still a giant among ponies."

“I guess they got some things wrong?" Amelia said with a shrug. “You said it yourself, it's like they had a dream about your world, and drew what they saw."

Justin nodded mutely, astounded by the world he found himself in. "I suppose. What would you like to do first? We can work on the lawn? You said you wanted to grow hay?"

“Yeah, you said you needed a sample... will some seeds do?" Amelia asked. “I think I have some in the shed."

He nodded quickly as he pulled a vial off his belt. "Meet me outside. I'll get things ready." He rushed for the door. Though he had to put the vial aside a moment, he otherwise had little trouble lipping open the knob with teeth and snout, then proceeding outside.

... than something to eat.

The darkness of the night outside still showed the glow of the fires receding into the distance, lighting up the underside of the cloud of smoke above them. They weren't close, but they were still quite impressive.

Alice padded out a few minutes later, her clothing shed, and her preferred wolf form shown, clad with a simple collar about her neck, bearing a small metal tag with writing. "Perhaps a friendly competition, husband? See who can grow the most hay in a week?"

The sound of his mate's approach drew his attention quickly. "The more we grow, the better." He raised a hoof. "Let's grow all we can, for your friend, and ourselves." He wasn't being very competitive about it, but seemed eager to get right into things.

Alice nodded, willing to let the competitive angle slide. She still wanted to know for herself how they compared, but she didn’t need to be a bully about it. “The more we grow, the better,” she agreed.

A half minute later, Amelia came around the side of the house with a fairly large bag of hay seed and set it down between the couple. “You two make a cute pair,” she said with amusement. “Here’s the seeds. Use as much as you need. As I said, there won’t be any shortage of buyers in the coming weeks.”

Justin grabbed the top of the bag and began dragging it away. "I saw a good place to start, it's just here." He didn't have to move very far and half-spilled the bag. "We'll have more seeds after we start. At least the horses won't be hungry." He sounded a bit odded out by the way that was phrased, even if he was the one that said it.

Alice picked out a different spot to work, nearby but out of Justin’s way, and started digging little holes in the ground, quickly and easily with her canine digging prowess. “I hope Amelia is able to get good at making those ‘hay-burgers’ you mentioned. Though I don’t think I’ll like them much myself. I wonder if the same condiments would go good on them as we use on hamburgers.”

Justin perked an ear. "You mean like ketchup? And mustard? Those are both good! A little salt and pepper…" He started rambling a bit about things one could put on a hayburger as he got to work digging and pawing with his hooves. He made long trenches rather than a bunch of little holes, then filled them with a line of seeds and pushed the dirt over the set of them. "I never tried feeding one to a wolf before... But I never met a wolf that wanted to talk to me instead of trying to eat me."

“I don’t care for mustard, but it’s not that unpopular. Do you like pickle relish?” The talk of hamburgers resulted in a bit of drool in the seed bag as she gathered some up and distributed them in her little line, before covering them up herself. “Ketchup and relish is my usual preference. Oh, with grilled onions!”

He nodded quickly. "All of those sound good. Does your friend have all of those?" He looked around to see where that human had gone off to, then smiled at his canine companion. "It's so funny we have this to bond over. I never would have guessed it." Right on to the next row he went, industriously tending to the seeds, but no great sprouting had occurred yet.

Amelia was sitting on her front porch, watching them work with amused interest. “I’ve got all those, and a grill out back to cook them up with. Do you think we’ll have hay far enough along to make burgers tonight? I don’t know how fast you too can make ‘em grow.”

Alice took some time to whisper to the little seeds as she patrolled the row for a bit, and then started work on the next row as the first started to poke up from the ground. “Tomorrow night would be much better, I think. Plants need their sun… and a plant who lives its whole life without feeling the sun’s warmth would make me sad,” she said.

Justin kept right on going, doing row after row after row. It was only after he had five rows full of seeds that he pulled out his vial and began to splash it carefully over the planted seeds. "Go on guys. Your plant brothers and sisters want you to grow tall and strong." Fortified with the released magic of the other plants he activated, he began to be crowded in abruptly growing plants, making up for lost time all around him.

Amelia sat up straighter, and Alice paused in her work to watch the rather quick growth. Alice’s own plants were still steadily inching their way up, but nowhere near as eye catching of a change. After a quick puff of breath through her nose, Alice redoubled her efforts, digging more holes and planting faster.

With his vial emptied, he didn't have more plant-growing serum at the ready and he moved carefully to step out of his patch of vibrant green. "If you keep going, you're going to beat me, wife of mine." He didn't sound like the idea of losing bothered him greatly, and he watched her work fondly.

His words, however, were obviously encouraging to her, and she managed a good thirty percent more than him, or so, before she collapsed to the ground, panting from the effort. “Those… burgers are sounding really good right about now,” she said.

“I’ll go fire up the grill,” Amelia said hastily, moving back into the house. “I’m sure I can scrounge up something edible for our vegetarian friend here. You are a vegetarian, right?” she asked Justin.

He nodded his head. "Not vegan, though. Milk, eggs, those are both good. I've tried fish before, but it's not really my preference." He rose to his hooves and moved to Alice to gently nuzzle his tired mate, then moved to flop right onto her. "You did a very good job. I'm impressed."

Alice giggled and wagged, trapped under her stallion. “Thanks. Yours was really something too. How hard is it to make more of those vials? Did you find what you need for them in my grove? Our. Our grove?”

He nuzzled the top of her head. "I did, but it's not the fastest growing plant, and you said to be careful, so I won't make another for a little while." His flat teeth found and nipped at her ears. "I can do it the old fashioned way."

Alice murred happily, evidently enjoying the nibbling. “Show me when we get back. I’ll make sure you don’t harvest too much. There’s a balance to such things, need to make sure it grows back as fast as you take it.”

He slid fully on top of her, hugging her from above and squeezing her gently. "We have time. The crop we've sowed needs care and attention, but we'll feed a lot of hungry ponies, myself to start."

Alice gave him a gentle nibble on his neck, squirming a bit to rub up against him. The sound of meat beginning to sizzle on the grill on the far side of the house made her blush, as she remembered where she was and toned it down.

He leaned his head back a little until she stopped. He sat up on her, then stepped free of her. "Let's not be rude guests. Cooking's a lot more fun with friends, right?" He led the way towards Amelia with a smile.

“Right,” Alice agreed, ignoring the countless times she’d been shoo’d from the kitchen by this particular friend. As she had countless times before. Her heart was still pounding and her tail wagging, making it a slight challenge to walk straight for a moment, but she managed to straighten out by the time they reached the kitchen.

Amelia was humming tunelessly to herself as she finished assembling a salad to go with the pasta salad and the burgers sizzling just beyond the back door. “Oh! Hi guys, mind staying out of my way? The table out back is where we’ll be eating, and I’ll have it set in a jiffy.”

Justin tilted his head. "I'd be glad to help, if you'd like a helping hoof." He held up one of those hooves, as dirt encrusted as farming had made it. "I don't mean to be an impolite guest, and you're not our servant, toiling away alone."

“Wash your hands first. Errr, hooves. But then you can set the table,” Amelia suggested, before pulling down various dishes from a higher cupboard. “You too, Alice. Clean paws or no burgers.”

Alice made use of a spigot on the back of the house, turning it easily and washing off her paws. There was a towel hung near it, something of a rag, but good enough for the purpose, and soon her paws were clean.

Justin took his turn after her, turning on the spigot with his mouth and working his hooves around under the flow and scrubbing them on each other until he was back to a modicum of clean. Wiping them clean with the rag did a lot to bring the shine back into them. "City ponies make fun of gardeners sometimes. You can always tell when a pony's working the land."

Amelia giggled, as she brought out the serving bowls for the sides. “We have the same troubles, sometimes, but not so much in this area. No cities worth mentioning for quite a few miles. But on the coasts… that’s another matter.”

“Cities can be dangerous for my kind, and smell bad besides, so I don’t like to spend much time there. They can be… wondrous, in their own way, though,” Alice said. “Maybe someday you’ll be able to show me one of your cities, Justin?”

Justin smiled brightly. "I'd be glad to." But he didn't move far. "The ground out here's just waiting to make my hooves dirty while they're wet. Do you have a dry towel to borrow?"

Amelia brought one out for him, handing it over before checking the burgers. Before long, dinner was served. While there was no hay burger ready this time, Amelia made him a grilled cheese sandwich, and the sides were meat free. Alice excused herself to head inside to change.

Justin watched Alice go before glancing at Amelia. "Couldn't she do that here?" Little things like nudity were foreign to the pony. He nibbled on the sandwich, found it agreeable, and chomped about half of it into a gooey mess, mmm.

“While it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen her bare skin, humans generally don’t go around naked where others can see them. We’d probably be fine, but someone could come by and spot her out here nude and give us trouble,” Amelia said. “Honestly, I’m sure it’s just force of habit, tonight. If we were worried about being seen, the talking pony is a lot harder to explain than a naked woman, and we might appreciate having her as a distraction.”

He perked an ear. "I guess that's what comes from not having fur? Do you get cold?" He looked over the human curiously, studying her. "It must be hard to hear, with…" He reached up a hoof and gently pawed at one of his long ears.

“I can hear just fine, thank you,” Amelia said with an annoyed smile. “It can get cold, but mostly it’s a sexual thing? Being naked is associated with having sex, and men especially… male humans, that is, can get easily aroused just from seeing someone naked.”

He looked after where his mate had gone, then back at her. "I don't usually think about that, but I've been with a few mares, and usually they're the ones that make the move and show they're interested, then nature takes its course and everyone… you know?" He looked a bit sheepish suddenly. Was he really discussing mating habits with an alien?

“Oh? Among humans, usually the male makes the first move, but it’s not a rule or anything, and I can’t imagine Alice holding herself back if she wants something,” Amelia was a little flushed from the subject matter herself, but tried not to let it get to her. “A lot of men are easily attracted by looks, whereas women usually need to get to know someone more before they’re interested. I don’t know about werewolves, like Alice. She’s always full of surprises, to me, and I think surprises herself sometimes. But you won’t go wrong spending time being friendly with her, you know?”

... than NOT being autopsied.

Alice stepped back out into the cool night air, lightly covered with her shirt and jeans again. “Why are you two blushing?” she asked before turning her attention to the grill. “Don’t let it cook too long, you know I like mine rare.”

Justin flashed a bright smile at Alice. "We were talking about how amazing you were, and how best to deal with, you know, us. I like… I think I like aggressive." He squirmed a little. "I didn't realize it before, but thinking back, when you were in charge, I felt safe, and excited all at once. I kind of like it."

“Good,” Alice said with a nod and a smile, before taking a seat on one of the benches by the wooden outdoor table. “Come, sit next to me,” she said in a gentle but commanding voice.

“A match made in heaven, then,” Amelia said, amused as she served herself and took a seat opposite. “Something tells me Alice here doesn’t have a problem with being aggressive.”

Justin moved swiftly and hopped up onto the bench beside Alice. "As long as she doesn't mind my studies, we have nothing to argue about." He leaned against her. "A good strong woman is the way it should be."

“Just let me know which plants you need to dig up, so we can keep them replenished, and we should be fine," Alice agreed, wrapping an arm around him possessively and kissing the top of his head.

Amelia smiled at the couple before a thought brought down her mood, and she ate quietly. The food was good, a pleasant distraction for all, illuminated by a floodlight on the back of the house above the door. Though the lack of insects, a side effect of the fire, made the quiet hear a bit oppressive, broken faintly by the computer in the living room, autoplaying the next episode without an audience.

Justin raised an ear towards that music as he relaxed against Alice. "What is that? Do you have a phonograph? I had one of those once, when I was a little colt. I played music on it all the time." He began tapping his hooves together to some beat only he heard.

“A phonograph?” Amelia asked with a bit of a laugh, her funk broken. "Nothing that simple or old fashioned. You saw my computer earlier. I must have forgotten to stop it."

He shook his head with some obvious wonder. "It can play music too? Are you--" He rolled a hoof slowly. "--really rich?"

“No, not really. I mean… I’m American?” Amelia answered. “I know they say we’re all pretty rich compared to a lot of the rest of the world. But by American standards, I’m barely above qualifying as ‘poor’.” She shrugged. “But computers are pretty cheap these days, even though they can do so much more than the more expensive ones a decade or two back. That’s mass production for you, I guess. Figuring out how to make a computer was really hard, but once they figured it all out, they just have machines in a factory churn them out by the hundreds.”

“Don’t let her fool you,” Alice said, “she has a lot of money. She could probably pay my taxes for life with what she makes every year.”

Justin's little mind clicked along. "I got the impression you lived away from most others. Who do you pay taxes to, Alice? Who is the ruler of this land anyway? I should say hello to them and get their permission to be here, to be polite."

“The rulers change more often than I can keep track of,” Alice said, “but the tax men are pretty consistent. You shouldn’t meet the rulers though, they’re the worst. They’re the most important people to not know you and I exist.”

“They’re not that bad,” Amelia said, halfheartedly. “But… I kind of see your point, and anyways I did promise... And I’d feel just awful if you did end up as the subject of an alien autopsy, or something like that.”

"I… what?" He frowned at the thought. "Just to be sure we're using the same word, do you mean cutting me apart?" When he got a nod he paled. "Why would you do that to anypony that's still alive?" He shrank against Alice.

“I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t do that to anyone who was still alive,” Amelia said. “Though… I guess they might try to quarantine you for a few years, to make sure you don’t have any dangerous alien diseases or something. It’s not like X-Files is real…”

“My Little Pony is real, what makes you think X-Files isn’t?!” Alice objected. Amelia started sputtering as she tried to find a logical response for what ought to have been nonsense. “This is what I was trying to warn you about, Justin. A human, on her own, is usually quite fine and reasonable. But the ones that are in charge can be downright evil at times, and you can’t trust the average stranger not to tell them about you and get you in deep trouble you don’t deserve.”

Justin gave a few stuttering nods before he flashed a bright smile at Amelia. "If it helps, I think you're a very nice person, and I'm glad to have met you. I'm just not in a rush to meet your leaders from the sound of it. I hope that doesn't make you angry."

“Nah, I’m used to it,” Amelia said, nodding toward Alice. “I’ve been keeping her secrets for most of my life, I can keep yours just as easily. It’s mostly just a matter of not mentioning things to people who don’t have any reason to ask anyways.”

Alice squeezed Justin possessively again. “Don’t worry, my stallion, I’ll protect you, no matter what.”

He nuzzled into his newly-gained mate and the suddenness of it gently tugged at him. "It bothers me a little, that we went so fast. We haven't had any dates. I'd invite you to meet my parents, but they're kind of on another world, which presents difficulties."

“And I’m exiled from mine... oh! Maybe the ghost who brought you here could send us both back to your world? It couldn't hurt to ask her," Alice said. “Just because we’re lifemates, doesn't mean it's too late to date. It makes it even more important."

"Would you be able to take me with you?” Amelia asked. “I don’t want to be left behind, and just hear about it all after the fact."

This suddenly became exciting to Justin. "I'd love to bring you both with me, but… you have lives here, don't you? What if it only worked one way? I'm sure I could get you situated, but everything here…" He slowly ran his hoof along the bench in a circle. "Would you be willing to risk that?"

“Gaia will see to the grove when I am gone, one way or another. I got it through the fire, and that will count for a lot," Alice said. “As long as I have you, I will be content. Do you think the ponies will try to hurt me? You were afraid of me because I am a wolf..."

"Being friends with a werewolf left me kind of isolated. I like my house, but there’s not much here I couldn't live without. I'd rather risk being stuck there with you than stuck left behind if you two never come back," Amelia decided.

Justin looked up to the sky. "Celestia above. I've gone from methodical study to whirlwind adventures and I confess to not being sure what part of that worries me more." He turned to face Alice directly. "When we see things we don't understand, we run. That's the usual instinct of ponies. I don't think that's very scary."

“I’m ok with them running, at first," Alice said. “They'll stop running once they get to know me. And I finally won't have to hide."

“So, are we thinking of trying to go tonight? Because, I should at least pack some stuff to take with me. Changes of clothes, at least," Amelia added.

Justin was the guide, and the idea made him nervous. "Before we get too excited, we should remember the girl may or may not even be able to do this. We should be ready for either possibility, so, yes, pack, just in case."

“Alright. Give me an hour... hour and a half, I should tidy up first," Amelia said, before reaching for the plates that had once held dinner.

"You pack, I will tidy," Alice countered, before getting up to start cleaning up after the three of them. “Pack light, you may have to carry it a ways."

Justin waggled his saddlebags. "I can carry some if you need. I didn't pack to travel at all, so I'm not that heavy." He curled on himself and sniffed before making a face. "Speaking of which, can I borrow your shower?"

... than getting nice and wet. (Clop)

“Of course, I will show you," Amelia said. She lead him upstairs, as Alice took care of the dishes. The bathroom was a bit awkwardly tight for two to maneuver around each other, but she got him into the tub easily enough, and showed him how to work the shower controls. “Anything else you need? My shampoo is a bit flowery smelling, I hope you don't mind."

Half-sliding into the tub, he looked around curiously a moment before nodding. "You should smell mine. I make some of it myself, when I find the right plant. It only blooms a few days out of the year, but if you catch it, mmm, so nice." He smiled with fond remembrance before he moved to the faucet and mouthed it, getting the water going. He jumped as cold water sprayed him, but he soon had the hot water going as well, and he gladly got to washing the stink away,

Amelia lingered longer than necessary, curious eyes trying to see more than they ought without being too obvious about it. "Wow, that sounds really special. I would love to try it, if we manage to get there. I'm afraid mine just comes from the supermarket. “

He perked a wet ear at her. "I'll be glad to make some up for you as soon as I can. There are other plants you can use, they're alright." If he minded her presence, he didn't show it. He looked around for the shampoo and realised something. "I don't have my brush. It was made for my hoof…" Washing was going to be harder than expected.

"Oh, here..." she said, looking in a drawer and offering her own brush. “Will this do? I can brush you if you need help," she offered, a bit eagerly.

He looked at the brush and its long handle with no groove for a hoof at all. "That might be best. I'd only be able to reach about halfway back the way that's built. No offense! I'm the one with hooves." He held up one at her and wagged it. He didn't notice her eagerness, seemingly just happy to have a helpful friend.

“Yeah, this one is made for hands. Oh, umm. I'd better take my clothes off so they don't get wet," she excused flimsily as she quickly closed the door and began to undress. “Ponies don't mind a bit of nudity anyways, right?"

He looked up at her as she began to disrobe and blushed softly. Starting undressed was one thing, to see someone taking them off somehow felt a little different. "Of course," he fibbed with a little wag of his soaked tail. "This is very kind of you, seriously. You don't have to get all wet just for me."

“I don't mind," she said, as she approached and started working the brush through his fur, starting from the front of his mane. She was leaning in from the side, getting splashed a fair bit from the spray. She didn't play up the sexuality, but she was blushing herself, and a bit nervous at first. "Your fur is so soft."

The brushes got a soft whicker of satisfaction from him as he started to relax into it and turned one way and the other to help reach his various parts. "Thank you." He leaned in and touched his nose to her side. "You're soft too." A different kind of soft, but certainly the creature beside him qualified. When his top was clean, he began to roll over and flopped onto his back, exposing his belly and hooves.

Amelia kneeled over him to brush his underside, working her way down from his head once again. Her gaze was on his stallionhood, unmistakably. “Thanks. My chest, especially, no doubt," she pointed out with a wink. Being heavier and less athletic than Alice meant much more generous mammaries, with a bit of sway to them even without milk. And leaning into the shower got rivulets of water flowing down them from her back.

Justin licked over his lips as she washed him down and both her eyes and her fingers began to stray to where his member started peeking in clear defiance of his new mate. He felt both stirred and guilty and gently pawed at the air. "E-excuse… me, I don't, you know…" He was doing a very poor job of objecting as he grew firmer and firmer, clearly enjoying her aggressive posture over him. The more she scared him, the more excited he became with every thump of that equine heart of his.

“You don’t what?" she asked, taking a deep breath before lathering her hands with a bit of soap and starting to rub it up and down his hardening shaft, knowledgeable enough to keep it from getting into the tip. Pretense was getting pretty damn flimsy at this point.

He snorted with the force of a worked up stallion and his hind legs kicked out into the air harmlessly as her deft fingers teased over the firm and pulsing flesh of his pillar of stallionhood. He was very clearly enjoying her attentions, even as he struggled for words. "A-are--" His words cut into a grunt as he thrust his hips up against those fingers, those deliciously alien fingers that brought him such pleasure. Was this how humans tried to join herds?

She moved her hands down to his balls, leaving his shaft unattended as she felt them up gently. "You are trying to say something, Justin?" she asked, dialing things down a bit, though she had a bit of a predatory grin. "Is there something you want? Or someone?" she whispered.

His words became little more than a soft 'nnng' as she caressed over his heavy orbs. Pulse hammering in his ears, he gazed at the enchantress that held him so helplessly. He wanted it, and he wanted to get away from it, and the mix only made the whole thing more exciting. He got a hind hoof onto the lip of the tub and pushed, sliding up the side of the tub only to slide back down into her wonderful reach.

It was ambiguous, easy enough to ignore, but it was rejection enough for Amelia, and she stopped, pulling her hands back. “ I... wait here," she said. She wrapped a towel around herself quickly as she fled the bathroom. Her voice come back, muffled and distorted by the door half closed between them and echoing from the stairwell. And then her bedroom door snapped shut behind her.

Justin peered at the place the human once was, baffled, confused, and… He sat up onto his rump as he tried to figure out if he was relieved or very dissapointed. Did he do something wrong, or were humans just curious creatures?

Seconds later, Alice ascended, slipping into the bathroom with a curious look, sniffing slightly as she went. "You needed something, Justin?" she asked, before catching sight of the state he was in.

Justin colored quickly as Alice entered, his member standing proudly even as he looked away. "Oh! Uh… I… I think I need your help understanding our new friend, and… uh, your help telling me how things work around here."

Alice took a seat on the toilet, looking him over. “ I will do my best," she promised. “ Are you OK like that?" she asked with a gesture toward his member. "I think that was why she said you needed my help. What happened?"

Justin looked like a child caught with a hoof in the cookie jar. "She started going further than cleaning, and I didn't know what to do. Is she… Did she want to join us? Are you alright with that? I… I only read in the romance novels mares that would try to join that way! Oh, it's my fault. I didn't say no. I'm an awful mate." He sagged, his member drooping with his head in an almost comical display of his dispirited nature.

"Join us? Oh! How do ponies handle that kind of thing?" Alice asked as she stripped her own clothes quickly. "Humans don’t usually do that kind of thing, but we wolves have our own rules."

His ears quirked up a half-step as she began to disrobe. He was starting to learn that meant something, and he seemed to have his doubts she just wanted to clean herself with him. "Do wolves also have herds?"

“We call them 'packs', but yes," she answered. “The strongest male and strongest female lead the pack, and others serve them. It's like a family, but a bit larger than most human families. Did you want to bring her in as a beta? How does it work with pony herds?"

He allowed a gentle smile to return to his snout as tension started to fade. "In pony herds, there is a stallion, and some mares. The mares protect the stallion, and the stallion serves the mares, in, uh, all ways, you know...?" He gestured down to his slowly refilling member as he waggled his brows suggestively. "We've come a long way since herds were popular though. I wouldn't actually be your love slave. Besides, you love me for my mind too, right?"

“I do. And strength of mind is a very important kind of strength," Alice said as she slipped into the tub with him. Her hands drifted to his member, less certainly than Amelia had managed, yet perhaps a bit too hard of a grasp. “I... I'm not actually sure I can take you, comfortably, in this form," she mused before returning to the topic. “You know I will protect you from anything. I think Amelia would, in her own way... do you want her in our pack, herd, family... whatever?"

The squeeze made him stiffen in more than one way as he grunted. "It's… so fast. I don't… mind the idea, as an idea, but we should learn each other, find out how we work, together, as a team." He smiled brightly. "That's what a family is, in the end, a team." He suddenly went upright. "Oh! You two have already been a team for a while. I'm the new cog in this piece."

“Hmm," Alice said, as she thought a moment, idly stroking her husband's shaft. “You’re right. We were never together like that but otherwise we are basically each other's only family. I could never be with someone who doesn't know about my kind, and that sort of thing, and neither could she, or else I would have to leave her... Oh! No wonder..." Alice looked a bit guilty about it. “If she had just asked... I probably would have said no, without really understanding..."

As much as he tried to ignore what she was doing and focus on the conversation, the firm strokes were too much to ignore and his hips began to rise and fall in a steady rhythm, his flesh wrinkling as he drew back just to go stretched as he thrust. "Y-you two have very nice hands." Damn hands, so good at working him up. "Well, s-she didn't just ask. What's your answer now?"

Alice grinned, "She offered herself to you, right? She's yours to claim, whenever you feel ready. She'll be my beta... I don't think she would try to take my place as alpha. So don't be afraid to take what's yours." With that she turned away from him, shifting to her wolf form and lifting her tail for him, while looking over her shoulder at him.

His eyes widened with the words. Had the human girl, had Amelia been offering herself? He had been so blind! Staggered with the implications, he almost missed his mate's gesture, almost. He scrambled to his hooves, slipping around in the tub as he looked at her and that tail. The gesture spoke to him on a deep level. Despite the species difference, that particular gesture was almost universal, and his heart began to thunder in reply. He began to think of herds and family arrangements, but an almost painful throb of his member reminded him there were more pressing matters. He climbed over her with a little wicker.

After all the teasing and foreplay, their rutting was hard, fast, and animalistic. Thanks to her regeneration, Alice was just as tight as she had been the first time, though she didn't mind the pain of being stretched out by her mate once again. As if on cue, the shower shifted from hot to cold water just after Justin filled her, cooling them both off in more ways than one, as Alice panted and laughed.

“Maybe we should talk to her about it," Alice admitted at length, when she had caught her breath. "Unless you would rather do it alone? You know my answer. She can't take you from me, but if she wants to be your beta and share, she's yours."

Justin gently drew her close as if to shield her from the cold water, or just to snuggle with her as he nuzzled into the back of her head. "Knowing you're alright with it, I don't feel so nervous about it. Would you mind if I let her set the pace?" He flushed a little. "I kind of liked being hunted that way."

“Not at all. From the sound of it, she doesn't mind starting things. But she might not try again if no one talks to her about it. Do you want me to let her know instead?" Alice asked, before twisting around under him to embrace him and lick his muzzle.

He squeaked and fell on top of her, losing his grip in the cold and wet tub. He snuggled with her, belly-to-belly and smiled. "Would you? I want something to not be instant. This whole trip has been one fast thing after another. Knowing she wants it, but doesn't have it, and we can ease into it, I like the idea of that." He buried his snout into her neck and throat, nipping gently. "My big wonderful wolf."

“Flattery will get you everywhere with me,~” Alice sang, before awkwardly reaching a hind leg up to turn off the water. “I’ll make sure she takes her time… just let me know if we’re getting to be too much for you, my stallion.”

He perked his ear and looked sheepish. "No! No, I mean… I said let her set the pace." He rose up from her and sat down before waving a hoof. "Don't tell her to go fast, or slow. If she wants to snatch me up, that's her choice, but let her make it." He smiled at his canine mate. "You, on the other hoof. You've already snatched me up, and I'm afraid there's no hope for escape for me."

“Definitely not,” she said with a toothy grin before nibbling vigorously on his neck and making muffled ‘nom nom nom’ sounds against it.

He flailed his hooves with mock horror before bursting into laughter and gently working away from her. He scrambled free and made his way to the towels before peering at them. "They don't look rugged enough to handle a pony, or a wolf." With but a moment of hesitation he began to shake vigorously, sending water everywhere and becoming quite the scraggly mess.

Alice closed the shower curtain before shaking herself as dry as she could, then shifting back into a human to use one of the towels to get the rest of the way dry. “Human skin isn’t as hard to dry… here, hold on, I’ll help you out.” She took the brush, and got out a hair dryer, plugging it into the wall and getting to work. “This will take a while, but your fur should look good by the time we’re done.”

He complained that he didn't need help, and that he looked fine, which he didn't, but he didn't try to escape, and soon he was brushed down and dried and respectable. He smiled gently at Alice. "Thank you. I just always feel silly worrying about that, being an alchemist. I'll just mess it up again anyway."

“Probably, but I know first hand how good a good brushing can feel. Head downstairs. I’ll check on Amy, and then we’ll meet you down there and see about that ghost of yours. I don’t know if we’ll be able to go to your world tonight, or not, but either way… I guess we’ll know soon,” Alice answered, before standing up and stretching.

He looked at her curiously for only a moment before he scampered off. As he went for the stairs he talked to himself, "Am I doing the right thing? Both of them throwing everything away for me like this." Of course, he was in the other position a moment before, but he was never asked to come to this alien world.

... than going home.

He was left alone downstairs for some time, the machine still autoplaying the series, now showing a griffon giving a few of the element bearers a hard time. A certain pink earth pony fly up to confront her, using a large collection of party balloons, much like those depicted on her flank. The ponies’ antics served as a good distraction, until the two women came downstairs, with Alice carrying a rather heavy looking backpack, and Amelia carrying a moderately large purse.

Each of the ladies winked at Justin in time as they came into the living room, Amelia’s looking decidedly more seductively coy, especially with her grin. “All packed up and ready to go,” Alice said, as they gathered into the living room, and Amelia finally turned off the laptop.

Justin pointed at the computer and its odd image. "I've never even heard of half the things they show on this thing. It's like being a peeping tom on their lives. I'm really not sure how I should take it. What if people are watching us right now?"

“Well, it’s Y7, so not so much a peeping Tom, per se,” Amelia said. “They’re not even depicted as anatomically correct. Though I’m quite glad you are, in person,” she added with a giggle.

“Speaking of people watching us… I hope your ghost doesn’t need an awkward talking to when we summon her,” Alice added. “Let’s get out the totem and call her.”

He cleared his throat with a bit of a blush as he dug out the 'totem' that was a little cute pony. He set it on the closest counter and smiled at it. "Are you in there? I'd like to talk to you if you have a moment."

“You have to hold it and say her name,” Alice reminded. “Three times, I believe.”

Amelia picked up the doll and began. “Isabelle Martin, Isa-” She stopped as the young girl appeared in a flash of light.

“Just Isabelle is fine,” the glowing, translucent girl said, before going up and giving Justin a big hug. “Are you doing OK, Justin? You seemed kind of scared at times.”

Justin smiled and reached to return the hug to the ghost. "Hello Isabelle. That's a very nice name. We're all doing alright, but we had a question. Do you remember how you pulled me here?"

Isabelle’s body certainly wasn’t solid, but it had a kind of pressure to it that gave him something to hug. “Uh huh. I gave you a big hard hug and brought you back here,” she said.

Amelia set the toy pony down and approached the ghost, wide eyed with wonder. It was one thing to be told there was a real ghost around, and another thing to see her. “Hi Isabelle? Do you remember me? I’m Amy. Do you think you’d be able to take all three of us to see where Justin came from?”

Justin swiveled his ears to Amelia, then back at the ghostly child, torn with conflicting feelings. "Don't hurt yourself. If it's really really hard, just tell us, alright?" He smiled gently. "I wouldn't want my little friend getting hurt trying to do us a favor."

“I think I can do it? I’ll stop if it hurts, okay?” Isabelle offered. “But you have to gather really close together, okay? I have to hug all of you to do it. Are you ready to go now?”

“Thanks Isabelle,” Alice said as she moved in and snuggled against Justin, kneeling to be in easy reach for the child.

“I’m ready,” Amelia said, squeezing against Justin’s other side, and kneeling as well, hand ruffling his mane.

Justin suddenly giggled. "This is going to be confusing for whoever wanders past. There'll be a perfect bed of hay just growing there, and nopony in sight anywhere. I'm ready!" He looked himself off and shook, making sure his saddlebags were properly in place and vials were secured.

Isabelle wrapped her arms around them all and for a few seconds nothing else happened. Just as they were beginning to wonder if she would be able to do it, the world disappeared from their perceptions, replaced by nothing but smoke, or perhaps the memory of it? Their eyes stung, their bodies tried to cough out the smoke that wasn’t actually there, and they were more than a little uncomfortably hot, but before the terror overwhelmed them completely, they found themselves simply in the dark. Cool, stale air surrounded them, and a few tiny droplets of cold water dripped onto their foreheads, bringing them out of the illusion.

Isabelle was nowhere to be seen, made worse by the fact that she was their only light source. Until a click sounded from Amelia’s direction, and a bright beam of light began to scan around the cave. “This isn’t exactly what I was expecting. Let’s find a way out of here.”

Justin looked around with wide eyes, and his eyes were pretty large to begin with. As he became aware of his surroundings the panic began to settle and he gave a slightly-unhinged giggle. "I remember this place. We're back, we're really back!" He suddenly bolted, running for the exit.

The women followed a bit more slowly, Alice weighed down by her heavy pack, and Amelia using the flashlight to guide her more cautious steps. But the cave wasn’t that treacherous, or too terribly deep, and they made it out into the woods easily enough.

“So… this is it? This is really Equestria?” Amelia asked as she blinked at the bright sunlight, despite the foliage. “Wait… this isn’t the Everfree Forest, is it?”

He looked over his shoulder at Amelia. "Oh Celestia no. It is a forest, but not that horrible place. My usual gathering agent wasn't around, so here I was, scrounging, and then a ghost grabbed me, and there I was." He looked around slowly and took a slow breath. "Oh Equestria."

“Good! Good. Just lead the way then, Justin. We’re your guests now,” Amelia said, though already her eyes were roving over the various plants in the area, particularly those most distinct from Earth’s flora.

Alice sniffed heavily at the air with curiosity of her own. “We should get to your house. For one, I’d like to drop this heavy pack so I can get back into my own fur. I can barely smell anything like this!”

Oh right, he was the tour guide. He turned to the exit of the forest and began to lead the way. "This way! When we get back towards town, don't make any sudden moves, and stay close to me. If you look like you're with me, that'll make you look a lot less weird. I mean, if one of my friends had a weird alien with them, I'd want to ask them what's up, instead of running away."

"That's a good idea. Oh, I think maybe Alice should change first. If the friendly wolf is around for introductions from the get go, I think that'll work better than her changing later," Amelia suggested.

“That sounds good to me, if you can carry the pack the rest of the way. What all did you put in here, anyways?" Alice responded.

"Well we don't know if I'll ever get home again, so I had to bring enough," Amelia pointed out.

Justin perked an ear. "Um, how bad is it?" He turned back to face them. "We have to get you some saddlebags too. They're great and work for us four-legged sorts." He waved a hoof gently with a smile.

The pack changed hands, and Amelia stumbled a bit under the weight with a grunt, but managed to stay upright. "I think I can make it, just no more running," she said with a huff.

Freed of her burden, Alice quickly shed her clothes, stuffing them in Justin’s saddlebags before returning to her familiar canine form. "Ah, much better. We'll definitely look into suitable bags for me while we're here."

Justin quickly circled around the returned wolf. "You're just a little different," he said as if just noticing it. "It'll mostly work, but we should go to a seamstress and get it specially fitted for you." He turned back to town and started to trot off, tail swaying with every step. He looked quite enthusiastic.

Alice slipped into lockstep beside him, while Amelia trailed behind the pair, looking every bit as enthusiastic, despite the weight of their burden.

The trip through the woods was uneventful, but entering town was less so. The first few ponies to see them left in a hurry, the third, a pegasus mare who used her wings to keep out of reach called out to Justin as they approached. "Hi Justin, who are your friends? They are friends, aren’t they?" The mare was Gentle Breeze, a kind young weatherpony who kept the area in order.

Justin raised a hoof in a friendly wave. "Hey Gentle! This is Alice, and Amelia. They're coming to stay with me for a while. They're friendly, promise!" He spun around towards his friends and gestured up at her. "That's Gentle Breeze, she's a terrific weather mare who's at least partially responsible for this wonderful day."

“You can make the weather be what you want?" Alice asked, genuinely curious, without the disbelief many from Earth might have felt. She had certainly witnessed more unbelievable things, and been one herself. So why not? The mare's slow flapping was already giving gravity the bird.

"Of course she can," Amelia said with a hint of fangirlish glee. "You're the first weatherpony I have had the pleasure to meet. Do you have a particular specialty?"

“Wind patterns, of course, but a small town like this, everypony needs to be able to do everything on a weather team,” Gentle Breeze answered, before slowly settling down toward the ground. “I’ve never met a… whatever you are, before. Or a friendly wolf. Nice to meet you both. Where’d you find the likes of them, Justin?”

Justin plopped onto his haunches. "It's difficult to even explain, but I've been on amazing adventure! Can you believe it? Me! Oh--" He gestured at Amelia. "She's a 'human', did I get that right? She has very clever fingers and a keen mind. My wolf friend has her own tricks. They're both pretty special, and nice." Did he mention nice yet?

Amelia blushed at the mention of her ‘clever fingers’, but offered them to Gentle Breeze, nonetheless, in the form of a hand/hoof-shake. “Justin here accidently found his way all the way to our world, and paid us a visit. So we thought we would repay the favor, and come visit his world a bit, once we figured out how.”

When Alice offered her own paw, Gentle went with a hoofbump instead, confusing Alice momentarily. “I’ve claimed him as my mate,” she admitted openly, “so we thought it best if we meet his parents and friends as soon as we could.”

Gentle Breeze was shocked by the sudden revelation, and her wings showed it quite dramatically. “Really? Wow! You didn’t have a wedding without inviting anypony, did you?! Scandalous!” Before anyone could clarify she was back in the air, heading deeper into the town.

Justin flushed gently as word of his eloping became public knowledge and he wondered how quickly it would spread through the community. "We never had a proper wedding." His tail suddenly thumped the ground. "You know, we really should."

Amelia went to say something but held back a moment before apparently switching tracks. “That’d be a lot of fun, and I get the impression your friends and neighbors would be excited to attend. Let’s do that!”

Alice looked back and forth between the two. “You’ll have to fill me in on what all that entails. But I’m happy to do it for you, my stallion.”

Justin waved forward. "First, we get settled in, then I'll go over proper traditional wedding ceremonies." He hesitated a moment before looking to Gentle. "I've never really saw a herd ceremony. Do you know how those work?" But Gentle wasn't there anymore. He snorted gently at the place he remembered her being. "Pegasi…"

“Would it be a racial slur to call her ‘flighty’?” Amelia said with a giggle. She scratched Justin gently behind the ears with her ‘clever fingers’, as she looked out into the town, watching more curious ponies come into line of sight, looking from a distance as word spread.

“We should stop by your home at least, let Amy drop off her pack. I’m sure you’ll be able to find someone to ask about it soon enough,” Alice suggested.

Justin nodded, perhaps not as deeply as he normally would have, enjoying those soft scratches. "Follow me." He led the way through the pastoral pony town and began to smile as he went, relaxing with the sights of home. "I may have to save up for an expansion. I don't want you two getting crowded with me in my little abode."

... than meeting the parents.

“We’ll help you. We should be able to find a way to earn our keep,” Alice said. “Do you have much land?” It was weird to her to pad around town, openly in her own fur. The fact that it was ponies surrounding her felt less dramatically strange. On the plus side, everything seemed proportioned well for her.

Amelia, on the other hand, towered over everypony, and was already dreading all the stooping she was going to have to do. “Maybe that expansion can be made a bit extra-tall?”

Justin bobbed his head. "Extra large for my extra pretty mare," he sang, seemingly getting relaxed about the whole thing, at least until he opened the front door to his little house with a lab attached to the side. Sitting there in the living room towards the front were a male unicorn and a female pegasus, both older than Justin. "M-mom? Dad? I, uh… Hi?"

Alice looked between the three of them, getting a little confused, until she padded closer to the older ponies, sniffing at them in turn. She seemed even more confused after that. “Are you going to introduce us, dear?”

Amelia took off the pack and slipped it in around the doorway before slipping in herself. She quickly found a spot to sit down, and waved to the ponies. “Well, that was fast.”

Justin nodded quickly as he kicked the door shut behind himself. "Meet Sweet Sunshine and Deep Intone, my parents, uh, who I didn't expect to be here today." He forced a wide smile. "Not that I ever mind my parents being here. They're both wonderful ponies, who I should introduce to my new--" He hesitated a moment, but it was a lost cause. "Mares. Alice and Amelia."

Amelia blushed, nodded and waved. “Hello Deep, Sweet. A pleasure to meet you both. I’m sure this must all be very strange and surprising to you both.”

Alice wagged openly, giving each of the ponies a quick lick on their snouts. “You’ve raised a very nice son. I’m glad we were able to come back here and meet you both.”

It was only then that they showed signs of life. Sweet slipped to the floor and approached Justin. She put her hooves on either of his chins and drew him close. "Are you alright?" Justin nodded quickly. "If you're in any trouble…"

Justin shook off her hooves and bumped noses with her. "Mom! They're not kidnapping me, promise."

Deep coughed into a hoof before speaking. His voice was just as low as his name implied. "Our son always was special and talented in many ways. I didn't think it would extend to his love life, but it's nice to meet you both." He tilted his head faintly. "You appear to be a wolf, but you're far more well-spoken than any I've ever seen."

“I get that a lot,” Alice exaggerated. She probably would get it a lot if she didn’t make a point of hiding from everyone. “You’re all a lot more well spoken than the ponies where I come from, or I wouldn’t have even considered taking your son as a mate.”

“We actually just made a point of leaving our world behind to bring Justin here home. So… kind of the opposite of kidnapping,” Amelia said. “Oh! I’m a human, by the way. I know we kind of don’t look like anything else.”

Sweet flew up to be face-to-face with Amelia. "I never heard of a human before." She circled around the one that would claim to take her son away. "Where'd all your fur go to?"

Justin put a fetlock over face with seeming embarrassment. "She has all the fur she's supposed to have, Mom."

“As he said, just a little up top and a… ahem, exactly as much as I should,” Amelia said, blushing a moment. “We tend to wear a lot more clothing than ponies to make up for it, particularly when it’s too cold or sunny.”

Deep gently adjusted his glasses. "We ponies aren't entirely unfamiliar with the idea of clothing."

Sweet, entirely nude and still flapping in front of Amelia, tilted her head. "That sounds dreadfully inconvenient." She turned away from Amelia, looking down at Justin. "You want a mate that can freeze in the winter and cook up in summer?"

“I know, I’ve seen enough ponies. A few of you wear a bit here or there, or on special occasions,” Amelia said. “I suppose I could just strip bare and let everypony see everything,” she said with a blush, “it’s not all that hot or cold around here. Though it’d certainly take some getting used to.”

“I agree with you, Sweet,” Alice offered. “I have to wear clothes whenever I visit their towns, and it’s such a hassle. And so much work to clean them all the time. I don’t know why they do it.”

Deep shook his head gently. "Now dear. Making fun of--" She glared at him quite meaningfully and he folded his ears back, but didn't shrink in place. "Don't give me that look. He's a grown stallion, and he's made a choice."

Justin glanced between the two parents, then nodded slowly. "I… Yes. Amelia, you should do what feels comfortable for you, not anypony else. There's nothing wrong with wearing clothes. Some ponies wear them all the time."

Sweet spread her forehooves wide. "Sure, snooty snobs in Canterlot! Is that what she is?" She was abruptly surrounded in a field of dark red and pulled towards Deep. "Hey!"

“Hey, I’m not a snob!” Amelia said before standing up to strip a bit angrily. “See? I’ve got nothing to hide.” Without the bra, gravity had a bit more pull on her chest than had been advertised, and oh, hey, there was that second patch of ‘fur’. But other than that, just a lot more bare skin. And blushing.

Alice rolled her eyes. “Amy, you’re being silly. Anyways, it’s not like she insists others wear clothes, even in her own house,” she defended.

Justin colored quickly at the display. "Mom! Sweet Celestia, you are not making mares strip for you."

Sweet sputtered in indignant fury. "W-what! I didn't ask her to, I mean…" She looked over at the nude human of her own creation and quickly looked away, confused. Before she could speak further in her defense, she was drawn in by the red field to Deep and smooched on the lips for a quiet moment.

Amelia sat down on her pile of clothes, giggling at the reactions she got. She placed a hand on Justin’s rear hips, stroking his fur lightly. “It’s okay, Justin. This is kind of nice.~”

Alice was a bit uncomfortable with it all, and tried to change the subject. “So… I know Justin’s an alchemist, but what do you two do?”

Justin quickly raised a hoof at Deep. "Father's a wizard, and a fine one too. He specializes in fire magic. You should seem him get going!" He spoke with obvious pride and fascination, with his tail wagging left and forth quickly.

Amelia looked between Alice and Deep. “I wonder if he’d be able to get anything past your wards,” she mused.

Alice shook her head. “Are you any good at stopping fires?”

Deep drew back from distracting his wife with a lifted ear. "One of the first lessons any colt or filly with fire talent is how to clean the messes they invariably make. I'm not ashamed to say I started one or two while I was getting the hang of it."

Alice nodded respectfully. “That’s an important skill to have. Fires can come from many sources, but when they’re blazing it doesn’t matter who started it.” She shook her head a bit. “Sorry, we’ve just had a rather bad fire in our area, so it’s on the top of our minds right now. I was able to protect my grove and her house, but so many others lost their homes.”

“And a few lives,” Amelia added solemnly, remembering poor Isabelle. “Oh! Uh, did anyone bring Isabelle’s little pony doll with them?” She tried to remember, but couldn’t recall anything about it past using it to summon the ghostly girl.

Justin looked around in a quick panic before starting to dip his snout into his pouches, searching each one. "Didn't you have it, Amelia? You called her with it, remember?"

“I did… I…” Amelia stuttered as she tried to think. “Oh no, I think I left it in the living room! Are we stuck?”

“Maybe… Justin found her here once before, or she found him. She is probably exhausted from bringing us here, but she may still be able to reappear later,” Alice advised, sounding a bit uncertain. “Anyways, Justin is here with us, so it doesn’t matter.” That sounded a lot more confident.

Sweet Sunshine gave a gentle smile. "I'm not sure what that's all about, but sorry, for the way I acted. It's just… he's my only colt. Please, take care of him, alright?" She suddenly darted out of the house, flying away on swift wings.

Alice gave a toothy grin toward her retreating form, and then turned it on Deep. “We’ll take good care of him, don’t worry. I won’t let anything or anyone hurt him, ever.”

Amelia hugged Justin from the side firmly, “and I’ll do what I can for him… which might be a lot less protecting, but I can certainly cook and help in other ways.”

Deep chuckled in that low way of his. "You found a chef. Don't let her out of your sight, son." He slapped Justin on the back. "So when's the wedding, or are you just betrothed so far?"

“I’m actually more of a botanist, by trade. Though I can certainly cook, too,” Amelia said. “We haven’t gotten a date set, yet, but I think it should be sooner rather than later. How quickly do you think it could be arranged? And do you know any good wedding planners?”

Alice glanced at the bite mark on Justin’s shoulder, scabbed over but still visible beneath the fur, and just grinned and wagged.

Deep tilted his head a little. "Well, there's my…" He coughed into his hoof. "My own ceremony was done by the mayor. A sweet mare by the name of Miss Appropriation. She's lost the bid a few times, but she's back at the moment. I fancy she'd quite look forward to officiating."

Amelia looked at him curiously, wondering what he had avoided saying. “It’d probably be a good idea to meet the mayor anyways, make sure everypony knows we’re not invading monsters or something. Do you think a lot of ponies would want to attend?”

Justin thrust up a hoof. "We should wait. I mean, not that I don't want to get married, but let's let the town get used to seeing you all, with me, and then we'll do that and everyone will be there and be happy."

“I’m not waiting,” Alice said, looking at Deep. “I mean, we can wait a bit for the ceremony, but… technically, according to my people’s traditions we’re already married, so. Mine.”

“Well, I can wait,” Amelia said, stroking Justin’s mane. “I’m sure it will take everypony a while to get used to us both.”

Deep looked between Justin and the smug-looking Alice before he leaned towards her. "Now, I don't mean to pry, but from the way my son's squirming like there's a heat under him, I'm going to guess you're the one in charge of this herd?"

Alice nodded confidently. “My people would call me the ‘alpha’,” she said, neglecting to mention that technically Justin would be considered an alpha as well. “What do you call that in your society?”

Deep put a hoof behind his head. "Truthfully, herds aren't so common these days. 'head mare' is the term that comes to mind." He held up a hoof. "Now, I won't get as teary as m'wife, but I do want you to take care of him."

"Dad!"

"No 'Dad!' from you. He's a good boy, a bright boy. Foster that mind of his." He smiled gently. "I'll be proud to call you both my daughters."

Alice nodded. “I’ll keep him safe so he can keep putting that strong mind of his to good use. ‘Head mare’, huh? I’ll have to get used to that. ‘Dad’,” she said with a grin.

“I’m glad we got to meet you both,” Amelia said. “We’ll be sure to let you know when we have a date for the wedding and everything. Oh… you said herds aren’t that common… do you think ponies will give us trouble about it?”

He chuckled softly. "I think it'll be down on the list of things they'll have to gossip about it. First, a wolf, second a hue mane, and third, the herd, and fourth, ponies they never met before, coupling with my boy here. Oh no, there's plenty to talk about." He rose to his hooves and shook out his pointed head. "Do tell me when the ceremony's to be had. I'll be there, with her, of course. Have fun settling in."

“I guess I’m no stranger to the rumor-mill… some ponies talking about me behind my back won’t bother me much… heck, it’ll just remind me of home,” Amelia said, though she didn’t sound as chipper as she was trying to pretend to be.

“Let them talk. We’ll be fine. We have each other, and besides, it’s not like the ponies will do anything besides talk,” Alice said.

He nodded on the way out. "That's the way. Just mind your p's and q's and they'll settle down after a while." He left the building, turning for a parting wave before he trotted off in the same basic direction that his wife fled in.

Justin let out a slow sigh of relief. "Dad always was so relaxed… So, uh, you met the folks. Not bad ponies, right?"

“You mom probably just needs to calm down, but I liked your dad at least,” Amelia said. “I was a little surprised neither of them was an earth pony, like you, but I guess that’s just how it goes sometimes.”

“Yeah, that confused me a lot,” Alice shrugged. “But they’re definitely your real parents. The nose doesn’t lie,” she said with a tap of her snout. “Except with your vanilla potion. That was kind of weird.”

Justin shook his head. "Oh she's fine. She's just, you know, like she said. I'm her only colt. She's being kinda cute about it. It's… It's nice to know she cares that much. I think I'll write her a card later…" He looked around slowly. "Oh! Yeah. I heard dad was hoping for a unicorn, and mom a pegasus. I'm kind of the boobie prize neither betted on, but they've always been great parents."

“Well, she’s not losing you completely, especially since we seem to have lost our ride home,” Amelia said. “And I think you’re great just the way you are. Though… I wonder if you’ll turn into some kind of… wolf-pony?”

... than full disclosure.

Alice looked away a bit sheepishly at that comment.

“You didn’t tell him?!” Amelia accused, sounding a bit alarmed. “Alice!”

Justin tilted his head one way, then the other. "Tell me what exactly? What do you mean wolf-pony? Why would I be a wolf?"

“Alice’s wolf-thing is contagious, at least to other humans. Bite, scratch or sex… or blood transfusion, not that that ever happens. I figured I’d probably get it eventually from you, but I’ve known Alice most of my life, so I knew what I was getting into. Alice, you should have told him!” Amelia said.

“We don’t even know if ponies can get it. I was going to just… help him through it, if it even happens,” Alice said. “What’s done is done, anyways. He’s my husband now, and we’ll get through it together.”

Justin sank to his haunches with confusion. "Oh, yes, together…" As wolves? "We're all… going to be wolves? Amelia too?" He pointed at her with a hoof before he looked at the hoof as if it could become a paw at any moment.

“We’ll be like Alice. You’ll be able to change into a wolf, or change back. If it even happens to you. The first time will be when the full moon is out, and it’ll be hard to keep control of yourself when that happens. And it’ll be hard not to be a wolf whenever the full moon is out, but we’ll be able to change back,” Amelia said. “I know you haven’t seen her do it yet, but she can be kind of halfway between human and wolf too, when she wants.”

Justin pointed at Alice. "Half way between what you were, and wolf. What'll I be? Wolf, pony, and wolf-pony." He danced from hoof to hoof, looking quite agitated before he suddenly bolted to his bookshelf.

“That sounds about right. I bet you’ll be adorable in all your forms. Besides, we still don’t know if it affects ponies,” Alice said. “And if it doesn’t, you won’t get it either, Amy. You know I won’t bite you.”

“He still might be a carrier, even if he isn’t affected. But it’s fine, like I said. I knew what I was getting into. My best friend is a werewolf, I’m okay with being one too,” Amelia said.

Justin found his almanac and nuzzled it open quickly and began to flip through it, tearing a page or two in his hurry as he talked under his breath unintelligibly. It was still two weeks until the next full moon, assuming Luna stuck to the schedule as she generally did.

"We need to be prepared for it when it happens. The first transformation, especially, can be painful, and we need to make sure we won't get out and bite some innocent pony before we regain control. Alice never had to go through all that, because she was born with it," Amelia added.

Alice hesitantly put a paw on Justin's withers. "I'm sorry. I should have told you. I should have told you before we were together the first time, but I was greedy, and afraid I would lose my chance for a great mate."

He paused a moment, then nuzzled that paw. "It was at least… partly my fault. I was approaching you, not the other way around." He grinned a goofy grin. "I was a mighty stallion, bewitching his mare."

Alice grinned at his acceptance, and drew him into a tender kiss. "We both wanted to be together that night, and forever more. And so we will be," she said.

Justin giggled a little. "I hope you don't mind, but even if that does happen, I like being a pony." He reached out and gently rest a hoof on one of her paws. "I love you as a wolf."

“I won’t mind. I love you just the way you are, Justin," Alice replied. "Wolf, pony, whatever. You're my husband. And one sexy stallion, if you ask me."

Amelia meanwhile was in the kitchen, poking around his cupboards and seeing what he had to work with.

Justin nuzzled with Alice a moment before looking to find Amelia. "I hope it isn't too crowded in here. When I first got the place, I was just planning for me and my chemistry, not two wonderful mares." He tilted his head at Amelia curiously. "Are you OK with all of this?"

“Hmm? Of course I am, Justin," Amelia began. "Though this place is quite... cozy. What about you, though? I am glad your parents are okay with everything, but are you ready to have two sexy 'mares' demanding your affections?"

Justin perked his ears. "What? I'm here for both of you." He made a circular gesture in the air. "But you two are the ones on an alien world, with no way back home. It's like I was… and I, well." He reared up onto two and suddenly hugged Amelia. "It's going to be alright."

She returned his embrace, enjoying the feel of his fur against her bare skin. "I know Justin. We’re together, and honestly, if the show is anything like reality, I think your world is a lot nicer than mine."

He tilted his head. "It's not all nice. There are lots of hungry beasts outside the towns, but if you stay inside, it's mostly nice." He flickered his ears. "Which I guess I should do more, now that I have wives… It didn't seem that important when I was single." He squeezed her with his fetlocks and noticed she felt a little different without her clothes.

"Just bring Alice with you when you go," Amelia said. “Which reminds me... we are going to have to figure out how to get some meat to keep the hungry wolf happy," she worried.

Justin stopped hugging and fell back to all fours. He turned to Alice and called to her, "Do you like fish?"

Alice approached them, sniffing lightly. “Fish is good. Why?"

Amelia nodded. “Fish should work for me, too. Humans need some animal protein too, but not as much, and fish, milk, or eggs can do it."

Justin flashed a smile. "Milk and eggs are pretty standard, especially in baked stuff. I don't think either of you will starve here." He nuzzled against Alice's furry snout. "Not on my watch."

“You too, if you do go wolf,” Amelia pointed out. “You’ll need some meat at least occasionally, though fish should be fine for that.”

“I hope the squirrels are okay while I’m gone. It might take a while for a new predator to come along, and keep them from overpopulating and starving themselves,” Alice worried.

Justin's face contorted into a grimace. "I never liked fish that much." A soft sigh was quickly replaced with that smile of his, trying to force himself to remain positive. "Your squirrels seemed pretty smart."

Alice was pleased at that comment. “I've raised them for generations now. I don't think they totally understand, but they trust me, and that makes their passing a lot easier for everyone when their time comes."

Justin's smile quivered at the reminder of the food chain. "Oh, uh, don't eat the squirrels around here, please. Most animals are pretty smart, even if I can't talk to them."

“Okay, okay. I’ll just talk to them… later. I can make do with fish, promise,” Alice responded, before nuzzling Justin. “I’m sorry, I know this stuff makes you squeamish.”

“Speaking of fish… we should do some shopping for food. You shop like a typical bachelor,” Amelia said.

He pouted a bit at that. "I shop just fine, for one pony. I wasn't expecting company when I left." He moved towards his fridge and grabbed the handle in his teeth, throwing it open and made a face. "Ugh. Some of this went bad while I was away. I guess we do need to shop."

“You were gone for what? Two days?” Amelia said, disbelieving. She put her hands to work, clearing out the bad produce to make room for it’s eventual replacement.

He pulled a pad that was stuck on the fridge with a magnet and began scratching out a shopping list. "I usually shop for just a day or two. I like the excuse to get out and walk to the store and get out of the lab."

“Alright. Don’t forget to put some fish on that list,” Amelia said, before heading back to the living room. She slipped her underwear back on, and then searched through her pack, getting a pair of shorts to go with it. “I don’t think I’m quite ready to be a full on nudist just yet.”

"Fish…," he muttered as he scrawled it out with a quill. "Got it. Come on, it'll be fun, and you can meet some other ponies."

Stepping back out into the daylight drew a fair number of curious eyes, though they seemed a bit less exciting now than they had been on the way in. Amelia waved a bit shyly to them all, earning a few awkward waves in return. Alice, for her part, seemed to make ponies nervous just by sniffing at the air to learn all their scents, and kept them all from being crowded, or for the most part even approached.

Almost as an afterthought, Justin Thyme checked if his human mate was back in her clothes or if she was learning the pony way. She had apparently compromised. Her bra supported her chest and kept it somewhat covered, but the shirt that usually covered it was left behind. And a pair of shorts, and the panties beneath, had her more intimate bits covered as well, but not much skin beyond that.

He perked an ear at her and nodded. "That's a new look. Did you want to get some new clothes while we're out?"

“It’s a compromise,” Amelia said. “I need my bra for the back support,” she added, cupping her breasts to point out the obvious. “And it’d feel extra weird being clad up here but naked down below. But on the other hand, I really like the feel of your fur on my skin, so the more skin exposed the better,” she claimed.

Justin shook his head. "You really don't have to change your clothes for me. It's enough you came to my world and with me. Dress as people do, nothing wrong with that."

She ruffled his mane with a hand and smiled. “I want to. It’s just fun that I can get away with something like this here, without getting in trouble. I’m sure I’ll be wearing a lot more come winter, and I don’t know if I’ll manage to be comfortable walking around naked even around here. Come on, though. We’ve got some shopping to do.”

He relaxed under her deft fingers and turned to lead the way.

.. than being a good neighbor.

Justin trotted through the village, pausing to wave or greet a pony on the way. "Oh, these two? They're my mares." He emphasized the word with a grin, perhaps taking pride in his find.

Alice seemed quite happy at such introductions, and used the opportunities to close on the ponies in question and sniff them a bit, while saying hello. As more and more ponies survived the process unscathed, the rest became somewhat less skittish around her, but it was a matter of degrees.

Finally, they reached the grocer’s shop, Peachy Keen’s Fresh Foods. The owner, a peach colored mare with pink mane and a filled paper bag cutie mark, welcomed them to her store. “So these are the outlandish mares you came back with, Justin? I’d heard word, but seeing is quite another thing! Super keen to meet you both!”

He held out a hoof towards Peachy for a bump. "Peachy! It's been a while." It had been a whole three days. "Good to see you. We have a big list of supplies to get through today."

“Great! Let me see!” she requested, as she bumped his hoof, and promptly absconded with his list. “Oh, fish? That’s a new one for you, but I certainly have a bit in stock. Is this going to be a regular thing?” she asked, looking pointedly at the wolf.

“Yes, please,” Alice said. “Every day, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“N-nothing’s too much trouble to keep you fed and happy, ma’am,” Peachy said, a hint of nervousness slipping past her cheery facade as she began filling the order, starting with the fish.

Justin gently nudged her with a hoof. "Relax, she's an amazingly friendly pony, er, wolf, pony wolf." He wagged his tail. "Being my mare makes her at least part pony."

“I promise not to bite you,” Alice said somberly. “Ever.”

“It looks like she bit you, though, Justin,” Peachy objected.

“That’s different. That’s because he’s my stallion. I marked him, cause he’s mine,” Alice said.

Justin coughed into a hoof. "That was… playing. You know, like romance books."

“Oh!” Peachy said, giggling emphatically. “Well, I guess I’m safe there, then! Here’s your groceries,” she said, before quoting a price.

Justin reached for his money… to realize he left it back in the human world and turned pale. "Shoot! I left my money… Can I get you back for this in a few days? You know I'm good for it."

“Where… oh! It’s back at my house!” Amelia realized. “We just left all kinds of things behind, didn’t we?”

“Alright, Justin, I’ll start your tab back up again,” Peachy said, still eying Alice a bit nervously, perhaps because of her toothy grin. “Can’t let you and your mares go hungry. Pay me back when you can.”

“Thanks, Peachy,” Alice said with a grin, before picking up one of the bags in her mouth. Amelia grabbed another two with her hands, leaving the last bag for Justin to pick up.

Justin snatched it up and spoke around his full snout, "I'll get it back to you as soon as I can. You're the best, thanks!" He hefted up the bag and trotted towards the door with his prize, already considering what jobs he could do around town to earn the money back.

With the timing Equestria was known for, a yellow pegasus mare with black mane and a pot of honey as her cutie mark showed up. “Justin, you’re back! I’ve been looking for you all day yesterday. Do you have any more of that stuff that calms the bees down?” Honeysuckle asked sweetly. “They’ve been so upset since that mean old bear came around again.”

“Do you need help convincing the bear to stay away?” Alice offered.

Justin bobbed his head quickly. "I could have a batch brewed up in just an hour, Honey. What bear?"

“A big brown bear came and stole a bunch of honey from my poor bees. It damaged their hives, and upset them all terribly, and now they won’t even let me get close. I want to help, but they won’t let me, poor frightened things,” Honeysuckle explained. “Your stuff helped so much last time they were upset, I just hope it’s enough this time.”

“You know the way there, Justin? We’ll be by as soon as we can. I might be able to help calm them if Justin’s alchemy isn’t enough. And I’m sure I can convince the bear not to come back and trouble them again,” Alice said. Finally, something in her element!

Justin swiveled an ear at Alice. "Peacefully, of course. I'm on the way!" He moved to trot from the store as he muttered ingredients required for the bee-calming potion he'd need to have on-hoof before approaching the hive or their bear menace.

“Of course,” Alice confirmed. “But it’s good to be able to take him or her in a fight. Predators can sense fear or confidence, and react accordingly. And they might try to pick a fight. I won’t bite first, but I won’t back down or lose. Though… bears can be quite painful to fight with,” she admitted.

Justin paused and set his bag down a moment. "You've fought bears before?" He shook his head. "Of course you have. My darling warrior mate, you don't cease to amaze and terrify your stallion." He snatched the bag back up and quickly made his way back home.

Alice simply nodded and wagged. “No need to be scared of me. You’re mine. I’ll protect you from anything.”

“If it’s any consolation, she scares me a bit too sometimes,” Amelia said to Justin in a bit of a ‘stage whisper’.

Justin giggled but didn't slow. Once he arrived at home and set his things aside, he got to shoving things away hastily. "I hope you realize I don't mean anything bad by that. I knew you were scary when I first made you mine, and I love you just as you are, terrifying and all."

Alice shrugged. “I’m a wolf, I’m supposed to be scary. It’s not insulting to me. It’d be like me saying you’re smart. That doesn’t offend you, does it?” She nuzzled him gently, then whispered. “Or pointing out how ‘big’ of a male you are.~”

Justin gently colored with her statement and his tail began to sway. "If we didn't have a job ahead of us…" He gave her an approving look before he finished putting everything away, then hurried along to the small lab attached to his house. He soon had things boiling and other things being grounded under his patient hooves.

Amelia busied herself cleaning the little house, and finding places to store her things. The house had been a bachelor’s house, and it showed, but it wouldn’t by the time she was done. But Alice joined him in his lab, watching curiously while giving him room to work, not wanting to slow him down. Rather than ask questions, she sniffed everything as he went, seeing what strange foreign plants he was using.

Many were similar to earth plants, but some didn't have straight copies, just as he had been amazed at the new species he had seen. Without asking he sighed. "I wish I had gotten some seeds from your grove. Ah well, you can't go back in time." He held up a vial with triumph. "This should solve the bee problem. It won't make the bear any easier to deal with, however."

“I’ll talk to the bear,” Alice promised. “I’m sure we can get him to cooperate. Do you think Honeysuckle would be willing to offer him some of her honey? He was probably just hungry. It’d be a lot better to give him a bit here and there then have him try and take it himself.”

He quickly bobbed her head. "If he's hungry, sharing food would be a good idea. Only a few ponies are so attuned to bears that they can talk to them straight up, and only one pony I've ever heard of could just talk to any animal, and she's not here." He tucked the vial away on his belt and moved for the door. "Coming, Amelia? We should be back soon if all goes well."

Amelia set aside her work and nodded, joining them on the way out. “The rest of the cleaning will wait. I can't be hiding in the house all day if I want other ponies to get used to me."

The trip to Honeysuckle's home was quick and uneventful. The house itself, however, was abuzz with excitement. The yellow pony had a half dozen beehives spread about her yard, surrounded by a fairly impressive flower garden, and neighboring a large orchard. The garden had suffered a rather destructive stomping, and the hives had large claw marks, hidden behind clouds of angry bees.

... than making peace.

Justin looked back at his mates. "Let me go first." He quickly unstoppered the vial and slashed a few drops on himself, giving himself the scent that would gently calm the bees as he bravely strode towards their damaged hives. "Easy there. I'm a friend. We've met before…"

As his mares watched, the bees surged forward, engulfing Justin with angry buzzing, before slowly mellowing out, hovering about him in a passive daze before meandering back to their hives. He had to approach the other swarms in turn to expose them to the scent as well, and pour some of the potion directly on the hives to completely calm them, but he managed to get through the whole project mostly unstung.

With the swarms pacified, he returned to his mates with a smile, even as the faint scent of fear wafted from him. "All done! And I didn't even get stung twice that time." He glanced to an angry swell on his side, but considering how many bees had gone over him, an impressive feat.

“Let’s go let Honeysuckle know, and collect our fee,” Amelia suggested. “Not to be too mercenary about it, but we kind of have debts we need to repay at this point.”

“You two go ahead, I’m going to sniff around and see what I can find out about the bear,” Alice said, waving them off before starting to sniff around one of the beehives. As the bees began to buzz around her, she spoke to them softly, whispers the others couldn’t make out.

Justin departed, but not before giving Alice a parting little kiss on an ear. "Be careful." He trotted off quickly with Amelia to hunt down Honeysuckle. "I have good news for you!"

“Oh?” Honeysuckle answered as she peeked out the door. Seeing the bees calmed down, she slipped out with a smile and gave Justin a quick peck on the snout. “You’ve done it! I knew you would, but I didn’t think you’d be done already. Oh! You got stung… only once? Here, let me get you some salve for that,” the mare offered, before heading back inside, leaving the door open behind her.

Justin trailed after her with a smile. "I'm getting better around them, bless their striped little souls. Alice is hunting for that bear to calm them down, I hope." An image or two flashed in his mind of epic battles between two huge predators and he shuddered. "But everything's quiet for the moment."

“Oh! I hope she doesn’t hurt the poor thing… or get hurt herself! I’m sure it was just hungry,” Honeysuckle commented. “Still, I can’t have bears going about smashing up my hives, now, can I? Now hold still, this will sting a bit, you remember?” She grabbed a tube from one of her drawers, and uncapped it, deftly holding it in her mouth as she squeezed out a bit onto his bump. It immediately stung with a fresh pain, before starting to tingle as it began to slowly heal.

Amelia ducked to enter after glancing in Alice’s direction, taking a curious look around the apiarist’s house. The decorations were stark, varying between yellow objects with black highlights and black objects with yellow highlights for the most part, though not quite everything conformed to the color scheme, and the walls and floors were, mercifully, simple blonde wood colors. Still, it was enough to make Amelia close her eyes in pain from time to time from the sheer contrast. “So, Honeysuckle… I don’t mean to be rude about it, but we’ve got a bit of a financial crunch going on right now… Would you mind settling up your bill with us while we’re here?”

As Justin recovered from the sting, he shook his head. "When you're ready, of course. I know you're good for it." Finances seemed to be an easy-going thing between small-town neighbor ponies. "Glad I could help. Would you believe I left my money in a whole other world? I thought leaving my keys on the train was bad…"

Honeysuckle giggled. “With you? I could believe it. Is that where you got these… exotic mares?” She took a moment to really look Amelia over, causing a bit of blush from the woman under scrutiny, before taking the time to count up some bits, and offer a jar of honey as well.

Amelia’s hands proved quite adept at grasping both, without the slightest change in her gait either. Convenient! Though mere moments after she had them in hand, Alice slipped in the door, declared “I need this, thanks!” and absconded with the jar of honey, immediately slipping back outside.

Justin's eyes followed Alice's quick retreat. "I didn't know wolves really liked honey that much, um, thanks!" He turned back to Honeysuckle. "If your bees need anything else, you know to call." His tail wagged. "But, yes, I did find them, both of them, there."

Amelia blinked a few times at where Alice had just been, looking uncertain. “I don’t think she does… maybe it’s for the bear? I imagine she’ll let us know if she needs our help… probably safer to stay out of their way until she does.”

Honeysuckle disregarded the advice, immediately heading for the doorway. “Oh! You don’t think they’ll hurt each other, do you? I don’t think predators always get along,” she said, before glancing back at Justin. “Isn’t it scary being near a wolf like that? I can’t imagine how you were brave enough to propose to her… or did she ask you?”

Justin softly giggled in a very unmanly way. "She does scare me, but I know she loves me." He suddenly grinned. "It's like a romance story! Dangerous love! I'm living it, and it's so weird when I think about it too hard."

“She scares me sometimes, and I’ve known her for most of my life,” Amelia said. “That’s part of why she scares me though. There’s some things she takes deadly seriously, and I just know to go along with her on those things or else. I don’t… I don’t know if she’d actually ever do anything to hurt me, but it’s not worth pushing it. If I made her have to make that choice, it’d hurt her no matter what she chose.” Amelia sighed and shook her head. “But… I don’t think any of that stuff will be an issue here. I feel like… in a way, we can finally both be free, here.”

“Free from what?” Alice asked, coming in through the front door just in time. She had some dried blood on her shout and around her mouth and one shoulder, but wasn’t acting hurt at all. “Did you think I was keeping you prisoner or something?”

Justin jumped in surprise as Alice entered, though it seemed her bloodied condition had more to do with it than her personal presence. "What happened?! Are you alright?" He dug out a cloth from a pocket and pulled it free, approaching and starting to mop up his bloody wife.

Alice squirmed slightly at his ministrations, as though it tickled. There were no injuries to be found under the blood, suggesting it wasn't her blood... but the position of some of the blood marks strongly implied otherwise. "The bear insisted on finding out who was stronger. I'm fine now, and his injuries will heal well enough," Alice said, before turning to Honeysuckle. "He is willing to work for you as a guard, and keep anyone else away from the hives for one jar of honey per day. Do you accept this contract? I can renegotiate a bit, but once it is agreed it will be binding to you both."

"Well, I... I didn't expect to get an employee out of this!" Honeysuckle began. "If it will keep the hives safe. But what about the bees? Won't they be upset?"

“I cleared it with them first. There will be agreement between them as well, that they will not sting him, and he will not harm them or their home," Alice explained.

Justin perked his ears with surprise as he sat down and used his hooves to push the cloth around carefully. "I didn't know you were an animal negotiator. That's a very respectable earth pony tradition." He tapped his chin before making an ick, realizing he got blood on himself. He set the rag aside. "Except the element bearer, but the element bearers are legends."

Alice looked ready to respond to Justin, but got distracted as Honeysuckle spoke up, agreeing to the contract. There was a bit of a ritual to it, apparently, and Alice explained it to the mare before leading everyone outside.

The bear was sitting outside, dipping a paw into the honey jar and licking it clean. He had a few bloody wounds here and there, both bite and claw marks, and well as blood on his claws, but it didn’t seem to be enough to slow him down. He climbed to all fours as they approached.

Alice called the meeting to order, summoning some of the bees to attend as well. She laid out the terms of the contract in lawyer like detail, though they weren’t particularly complex. And then she held out an open paw face up. It turn, the bear, the bees, and Honeysuckle each touched the paw and made a noise, the last being the words “I agree.” And thus, it was done.

Honeysuckle gave a bit of a shiver. “That was… That was some kind of magic?”

“You are bound by your oaths,” Alice said, nodding. “And that binding cannot be easily undone.”

“I never get tired of seeing all that golden, swirly, magical light,” Amelia said in an aside to Justin.

Justin slowly tilted his head. "What do you anchor the magic to? You don't have a horn, and I didn't see any plants to focus through. I don't understand. Magic doesn't come from nothing!"

Alice quirked an ear at him. “What do horns have to do with magic? Anyways, this is contract magic. It binds to the words. That’s why it’s important to speak them very clearly and precisely,” she said, nodding to herself.

“I think unicorns use their horns to control their magic,” Amelia said, looking to Justin for confirmation. “I think most human magic users use their hands to guide it? They’re pretty rare though, and the ones I’ve met were all assholes.”

Justin sat up with amazement. "With their hands? I wonder if other creatures with hands could do it like that… Oh! Yes, their horns, I'm quite certain of it. They just point their horns and poof, magic everywhere. It's what they do. I'm an earth pony. Our magic isn't nearly so flashy. We're tied to the earth, just as the name implies."

Amelia made a wiggling motion with her fingers. “Yeah, they do some weird intricate movements and say some weird stuff, and the magic happens… it’s crazy to watch, at least the ones that are obvious about it. One guy I met could do stuff without any of that,” she said, with a shudder at the memory.

Justin shook his head. "I hope I don't offend either of you when I say that, from the sound of it, I'm just as fine being back in Equestria. Things make sense here." Oblivious to the irony of his statement he trotted outside. "Good luck, Honeysuckle! Do call if anything else comes up."

“Thanks, Justin! And you too, Alice! A pleasure to meet you!” Honeysuckle said as she waved goodbye, before getting to work on fixing up the hives. The bear strode away a bit and settled down to watch sedately while enjoying the remains of his jar of honey, as peace was restored.

... than watching the moon rise.

The trip home was uneventful, until the sudden setting of the sun and rising of the moon nearly bowled Alice over with surprise. Amelia giggled, jumping a bit at the unexpected timing, but she had at least known to expect it to happen.

“Does night always come on so suddenly here?” Alice said, shaking her head to clear the disorientation. “I’m used to a bit more… transition.”

“The Princesses raise and set the sun and moon here, right?” Amelia offered. “So it’s a bit more like… flicking a light switch, than the simple astrophysical processes we have back home.”

Justin nodded in easy agreement. "When the time is right, Luna rises the moon, and Celestia lowers the sun. Sometimes they are a bit slower, if the… I don't know what prompts them. Maybe it's a muse thing? They are artists of a sort." He waved a hoof up at the sky. "The whole canvas they have to work with is amazing."

“That sounds amazing. Do you think we could meet them?” Alice asked. “Especially Luna? We wolves have a special connection to the moon. I wonder how different it will be with your world’s moon. It feels… so much stronger, already. And we’re still far from the full moon.”

“Are you going to become a Princess Luna fangirl now?” Amelia teased “I always thought Princess Celestia was best pony, though maybe I’ll change my mind.”

Justin twitched an ear at Amelia. "You know of them already? As for meeting them, we could go to Canterlot, to ask, but unless we have something worth bothering them about, we really shouldn't. They're princesses! I'm just an alchemist."

“I only know them from the show,” Amelia replied. “I’m sure it’s much different meeting them in person. You don’t think a couple of immigrants from another world are reason enough to check in with them? Though I guess maybe we could start a little more locally? I guess you would have some kind of laws in place for non-ponies to become residents or even citizens here in Equestria… griffins and minotaurs and such, for example.”

“I’d much rather meet a princess than fill out immigration forms,” Alice said with a groan. “I hope the ponies aren’t as fond of paperwork as your people are.”

"Oh, uh…" He glanced left and right. "You actually have kind of a point there…" He rose his head up high. "Oh my. I don't know what I'll say to them. You know, 'hey, these are my two lovely mares. Oh, no, they're not ponies, or from this world… They come in peace though! Say hello, your highness." He gave a little hysterical laugh, walking stiffly.

"We come in peace. Take us to your leader,” Amelia said in a silly robot voice, before giggling. "Seriously, though, we should get the paperwork done soon, so we don't get in any trouble. Along with getting formally married...” The last bit she said a bit hesitantly, as she glanced around the town at the other ponies.

“Can you take care of all the paperwork, Amelia? Pleeeease?” Alice asked, doing her best ‘puppy dog eyes’.

Justin put a hoof over his face. "Introductions should definitely come first. How did I not even think of this?" He turned to face his new potential wives. "I don't have the money to go running off to Canterlot right away, so we'll do the second best thing." He rose a hoof high. "Write a letter! They'll understand if I at least do my best to keep them informed."

“That makes sense. If the princesses feel it’s urgent to meet with us, they can either come in person or foot the bill for the travel,” Amelia said, nodding to herself. “Or if they insist we come at our own expense, we’ll deal with it then. In the meantime… let’s just settle in for the night. I’ll make us some dinner,” she said, gesturing to the quickly approaching house.

“I wonder if I can earn us some bits negotiating with the local animals on behalf of the ponies… it sounds like we’re going to need a lot of them,” Alice mused as she headed for the door.

Justin followed with upright ears. "Can you talk to animals in general? I thought it was some kind of predator thing, maybe. I confess to not really understanding it…" He moved to brush past both on his way into the pantry, perhaps as an excuse to rub along the way. "At least we've made enough to pay off these groceries."

Alice took in a deep sniff of him as he passed, before answering. "It's part of my magic, I can converse with any animal, though getting prey to stick around long enough to chat can be difficult. I raised my squirrels for generations, so they trusted me, but strangers take some time to get to know. Just like anyone else.”

Amelia pet Justin as he passed her, scratching him lightly with her clever fingers, before following him into the pantry to help him put things away.

The scratching held things up for a moment, but it seemed Justin was just as busy pulling things out as storing them, preparing the supplies for what would become dinner. "So the bear was actually easier, since it wasn't scared of you right away? I'm glad I don't have to calm down my plants before I harvest them."

“Kind of,” Alice began. “Predators don’t run at first sight, especially big ones like a bear. And it’s really hard to calm someone down when you’re chasing them, or if you let them run out of hearing range. But predators instead tend to fight at first sight. So I have to convince them I’m tough enough to beat them, without injuring them too much. It can be quite painful, but I can take a beating if I have to to wear them down.”

Amelia helped with the groceries as best she could, a bit slower because she had to find where everything went, but she was still a big help. “Go, relax with Alice in the living room. I’ll get dinner started.”

He looked uncertain a moment. "Can you get to everything alright? I mean, everything in here is made for a pony. You shouldn't have to stoop for everything!" Despite his complaints, he was easily brushed away towards the living room and he huffed gently. His eyes found Alice and his smile returned. "Forgive me for asking, but did your profession have a name?"

“I’ll be fine, just have to bend my knees,” Amelia said as she squatted in the kitchen to reach some of the lower items. Soon she had the stove lit and was starting to assemble a meal for them all.

Alice lay down on the couch, wagging gently. “I’m a shaman. It means I study the spiritual arts of my people. And that includes communicating with the spirits of others, especially animals who have trouble communicating otherwise. It also means knowing how to understand and use my own spirit, such as using it to protect my territory from fire, or other threats. And you’re… an ‘alchemist’ right? I don’t really know what goes into that, other than mashing plants…”

"Shaman… Shaman… Oh!" He suddenly bolted off without answering the question. He seized a book from his bookshelf and tossed the book onto the ground, where it flopped open. Not to the right page, he wasn't quite that lucky, but he quickly nosed through the pages to the one he sought. "Here, like the zebras!"

“Zebras have shamans?” Alice said with a quirked brow, before looking over the page. She furrowed her brow in deep concentration as she glared at the page, almost angrily. “I’d like to meet one if I could and see how their arts differ from my own. Though it’s nothing urgent, of course.”

Justin rubbed the side of his face. "I never actually met one. They're pretty rare here in Equestria. If we see one, we can both ask questions, after we say hello, of course." He smiled. "If you think my alchemy is interesting, they blow pony discoveries in that field right out of the water." He rubbed his hooves excitedly. "To compare notes with one of their alchemists…"

“Let’s make a point of it, then,” Alice said, decisively. “Once we get things sorted out here a bit, we can find out if there are any nearby, or where we need to go to meet them. If you want something to happen, do it.”

A clopping knock came from the door, startling Justin to his hooves and getting him to move quickly for the front door. "Coming!" He swung it open to reveal an earth pony with a letter in his mouth. "Oh, thank you." Justin accepted the letter, taking it with a hoof. "Have a nice day."

Alice gave a friendly nod to the mail carrier before turning her attention and curiosity to Justin. “A letter? Who’s it from?”

Amelia paused long enough to glance out at them before getting back to work, the sound of something sizzling starting to fill the air. “Maybe it’s a love letter from his secret admirer?~” she called out in a joking tone.

Justin went pale. "I should hope not! Goodness, I just met more mares than I thought I'd ever have. I think I'm quite satisfied." He turned towards them, letter balanced on his hoof. "Besides, I have to keep up with you lovely ladies." He sat and carefully tore the top off the envelope before reading quickly, his eyes scanning over the paper.

Amelia graciously let the joke go, while Alice waiting in quiet tension, looking like a wound spring as she gave Justin a chance to read.

"I didn't think my letter would go so quickly…" He tapped at his chin. "Did I even send it yet?" At the incredulous looks of his new wives, he smiled. "It's from Canterlot. The princesses are saying to welcome you to Equestria properly." He offered the letter towards them. "Says she wants us to visit, when it's convenient, and wants you two to join society. I mean, a job and all that."

Alice sniffed the paper a few times, taking note of the scents of the mail carrier and some other pony, presumably the author, before carrying it into the kitchen for Amelia to read for herself. Amelia accepted it, unable to resist petting Alice’s head lightly in exchange, before looking it over. “I see. I hope I can get work here as a botanist, like I was back home… I’m sure you’ve got to have all kinds of interesting plants I haven’t even heard of. Even just some of the ones I know from the show… actually, here, I almost think some good botanical science could be a matter of life and death,” she said with a bit of a grimace.

“How long is the journey to see the princesses?” Alice asked Justin. “I don’t think you should be travelling during the full moon, especially not your first. So we should plan to be back before then, or not leave until after.”

Justin's ears pricked before he remembered with a nervous little shuffling. "Are we sure that's even a thing? I mean, maybe it doesn't work on ponies?" Sure he was rationalizing hopefully for himself. "Anyway, uh, far? We have to hike to the train station. That's a full afternoon's walk. We're not exactly a major town." He tapped at his chin. "It's not so bad as long as the wildlife leaves us alone, which they usually do."

“We can handle wildlife, no problem,” Alice said confidently. “But even though you might not change, we shouldn’t risk changing for the first time in the middle of the capital. Especially since night could come on any moment here!”

“That’s not quite how it works, Alice… anyways, how long is the train ride? We have a couple weeks until the full moon, right?” Amelia questioned.

He licked his lips nervously. "That's really up to Luna, I think. She likes big round moons. Before she came back it was more, uh, random? Is something terrible going to happen tonight?" He clopped his hooves together with increasing nervousness.

“No, no. Nothing terrible. But it can be hard to keep control of yourself the first time you turn into a wolf, so we should stay inside and stay close to me,” Alice said comfortingly, as she stroked Justin’s neck with a paw. “Actually, it’s a good thing we’re mates. It will make it easier to distract you when you do change,” she added with a suggestive tone.

“It shouldn’t happen before the full moon though, if it’s going to happen at all,” Amelia added, as she entered the room carrying several plates of steaming vegetables and potatoes, with some fish on two of three plates. “You said yourself, it might not even affect ponies.”

“On the other hand,” Alice pointed out, lifting a paw to gesture as she glanced up toward the spot on the ceiling keeping the moon from view. “The moon feels much stronger here than on Earth… it might be enough to trigger the transformation early. Not yet, but maybe soon.”

Amelia “hmm”’d at that thoughtfully, her brows furrowing a bit as she considered the implications.

Justin shook off his moment of shock. "W-wait! What?" He put a hoof to his head. "Please, if I, you know, go crazy, just keep me inside until I snap out of it. Will it get easier to handle with time? I don't want to be a monster, threatening my neighbors. I'd hate to do that…"

“You don’t think I’m a monster, do you?” Alice asked. “When the wolf instincts first kick in, they’ll be overwhelming, but I’ll help you through the transition, and help you learn to embrace your wolf side. You’re a good and nice pony, you’ll be a good and nice wolf.”

Amelia distributed plates and utensils, before sitting cross legged at the table. “We’ll get through it together, as a herd, or pack, or whatever. Family. Alice won’t let you hurt anypony, even by accident.”

... than a good breakfast.

While the newly formed herd certainly needed a new bed, they didn’t have one yet, and everyone still needed a place to sleep. Amelia had laid claim to the couch, whose length better suited her than even Justin’s bed, and Alice had made due to with the living room floor, leaving Justin to the familiar solitude of his own bedroom. But the smells and sounds of breakfast already cooking when he awoke brought a quick end to the familiarity, and prompt assurances that he had not, in fact, dreamt the whole thing.

Justin rolled out of bed and to his hooves, stretching out and looking towards the window. "Good morning, Celestia." He said it without any direct familiarity and trot out to see to his guests, er, wives. The adjustment was still in process, but he looked ready to tackle the day and the challenges of it.

Alice did not look ready to tackle the day in the slightest. As a matter of fact, she was still snoring loudly from the middle of the rug, lying sprawled on her back and kicking fitfully on occasion. Amelia, by contrast, was just getting a breakfast of French toast and eggs onto plates for the three of them, humming happily to herself and practically glowing with joy.

"Good morning, Justin!” she called out as she spotted him. "Did you sleep well? The couch was okay, but I am certainly looking forward to that bed you keep mentioning.”

Justin waved a hoof towards her as his other three legs carried him into sight. "I'll sleep better knowing I'm providing for my new companions. Are you sure you don't want the bed we have?" He tapped at his chin with the hoof he used to wave. "That smells wonderful, by the way."

“It’s too short for me,” Amelia said before adding in a loud whisper “unless I have my legs wrapped around my stallion.” She carried the food out to the dining area, deploying plates and utensils. “I don’t know if Equestria has a similar recipe, but we call this French toast. What would you like to drink with your meal? I recommend the orange juice, but I know Alice prefers water.”

Alice could be heard lightly sniffing in her sleep, but still hadn't managed to awaken. It seemed to be enough to earn a slight wag from her, however.

"Prance? I didn't know you knew any Prench foods." He trotted over towards the source of the interesting aroma, tail wagging. "Today, I'll show you the equipment I have and go over my latest notes. Maybe you'll see where I'm getting stuck." He paused to clop his forehooves. "I didn't think I'd have an alchemic partner!"

“I’ll do my best, but I’m new to this Alchemy thing. A fresh perspective is all I can promise,” Amelia said as she sat crosslegged at the table. “Alice! It’s breakfast time!” she called loudly enough that the wolf actually stirred, and sleepily made her way to the table with a bit of a growl. “It’s best to have food ready to eat if you ever have to wake her,” she advised their husband.

Hopping up into his place and getting cozy, Justin nodded to Alice. "Good morning. Amelia made us some Prench food." He tapped his chin. "Come to think of it, you do your own kind of alchemy, don't you? Maybe we can all visit the lab." His excitement seemed to only grow with every sentence. "A triple team!"

Alice blinked at him blearily, trying to figure out what he was going on about before finally snorting and digging into her breakfast. Not a single sentence that he had just spoken made sense to her, and she wasn’t prepared to deal with it on an empty stomach.

“I don’t know how much help Alice will be in a lab, but she should at least see where we’ll be working, certainly,” Amelia offered, as she cut her food into manageable bites. “But she does have her own magic, and I’m sure between the three of us, we’ll be able to deal with any problem that arises.” That settled, she reached over to scratch each of the others behind the ears in turn.

Justin tilted his head a little before he sniffed at the food and snatched a bread right in his lips, chewing on it thoughtfully without using a fork, the heathen. He gave a little appreciative 'mmm', enjoying the meal despite his bachelor table manners.

Amelia watched him a bit before shrugging. His manners were already better than Alice’s, who gave a fine demonstration of ‘wolfing’ her meal, so Amelia was quite used to being the only one to properly use utensils. “How do you like it, Justin?”

That prompted him to slurp up the rest of the slice and swallow it down. "It's lovely!" He licked over his syrupy lips. "Better than what I usually bother with for breakfast. Dinner's the larger meal for me. On really nice days I even go out and see friends. Oh! I can't wait to introduce you both to them all." His head tilted. "Do you think they'll like you? Oh of course they will." Optimism seemed without bound that morning. Perhaps that stallion just needed to get laid more regularly.

“When do you usually go meet them?” Amelia asked. “Should we try out the lab first, or go give them a visit? I’m a bit nervous about it, but it should be good. We should spend more time with your parents, too, once they’ve had time to get over the shock.”

Alice finally spoke up, “if they’re half as nice as you, husband, it will be a pleasure to meet them. I do hope they don’t get too scared of my smile.”

He waved a hoof. "It won't be a problem. Hay, I bet they'll be more annoying than anything else if you let them ask a thousand questions." He attacked the next slice, making it a fond memory quickly. "But that isn't until later afternoon at the earliest, so lab time first, for sure. I hope you're ready for some science!" Science, magic, hard to tell apart in that world.

“Alright, let’s do some science!” Amelia declared with a giggle. “Right after we clean up,” she insisted, and quickly set about getting the dishes into the sink and cleaned up.

“So… how was she last night?” Alice inquired of their stallion while the human was distracted. “Other than loud, obviously.”

Before Justin could help with the dishes, he was ambushed. "Huh? Oh! Uh… We didn't become wolves, if that's what you mean?" He gave a genuine, if a bit naive, smile. "I guess the time isn't right?"

“It’s not the full moon yet, so you won’t yet,” Alice pointed out. “I meant as a lover.~ I trust she wasn’t too disappointing. But don’t worry, you get me again tonight,” she promised with a grin.

He cocked his head. "Huh? Oh! Oh!" He colored swiftly. "She was fine…" He squirmed, looking suddenly shy about it. "Is that how we're going to divide me?"

Alice shrugged. “I assumed, but you’re right, we should discuss that together. How would you prefer?”

Amelia stepped out of the kitchen, the scant few dishes already cleaned. “What are we talking about?”

Justin spread his hooves. "I hoped we would be a more equal sort of team. If you want something from me, you just ask, not wait for a special day." He looked between his would-be mares.

“Oh? Do you think you could satisfy us both in the same day?” Alice asked with a challenging tone and a wagging tail.

Amelia blushed a bit. “Ah, that’s what we’re talking about... “

Justin cleared his throat softly. "Ahem, yes, well. I would try my best." He smiled a little. "Just as if we were both attacked, you would protect us both, would you not?" He looked to Amelia. "All cleaned up?"

“Of course!” said Alice quickly. “But that’s not really the same thing is it?”

“Sure it is,” Amelia said, giving Alice a blushing but almost predatory grin. “Like if we were both horny at once, our brave stallion here would do his best to satisfy us both… might need to learn some tongue techniques, Justin.~ If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I could always show you.~”

Alice looked to Amelia, confused for a moment, until she started to back away a bit. “Amelia! Where do you even get these ideas?!”

“The internet,~” she replied in a sing-song voice with a laugh.

There just weren't enough throat clearings in the world. Justin opted for distraction instead. "Let's show you lovely ladies the lab, this way!" He trotted to the front door and mouthed open the knob without delay, heading outside.

After exchanging a few looks, the two of them followed him out and through the yard. Amelia waved to a few passing ponies, getting waves of various levels of politeness and friendliness in return, before they ducked back into the building in a separate room, this one filled with a dizzying array of apparatus and assorted plant parts in varying states of processing, from dried powders to live specimens.

Alice immediately set about sniffing everything, while Amelia looked around with a long whistle. “Wow,” the human added. “This is quite the setup you’ve got here.”

Justin bobbed his head with pride as he reared up to be on level with the tallest table there, peering at a blooming flower there. "Ooo! Celestia be praised! This is one I found just before I came to your world. I'm not even sure what it can do, but isn't it a lovely specimen?"

Alice sniffed at it extra attentively. “Well, it smells lovely,” she began.

Amelia peered at it. “So would you like to start working on it, today? Or should we start with something more… predictable? You do have a couple of newbies in your lab, after all,” she pointed out.

He nodded quickly. "Oh, yes, this can wait for now." He fell to all fours and went to the more easily accessed and larger table at the center of the room. "I use a wide variety of standard plants. Thyme, rosemary, poison ivy even. Every one has certain properties, and they change when you mix them together the right way." He pulled out a large book and set it out on the table. "I've taken notes of especially useful or dangerous combinations here. Mixed, mashed, cooked, sometimes even boiled."

Amelia flipped through it a bit, scanning the recipes and their observed effects. She stopped on one that purported to ease aching muscles, handy after a long day of hard work. “Ooh, this looks promising. It says here it ‘enhances a stallion’s sexual performance and endurance’,” she lied. “Do we have all the ingredients to make it?”

“What?! Why would he even have something like that in his book?” Alice asked, putting her hooves on the table to see, only to have Amelia pull the book away. After a bit of roughhousing, Alice had Amelia tackled on the ground, and could finally see for herself. “Hey! I can read you know!” Amelia couldn’t help but giggle about the whole thing, even as she tried to catch her breath with a wolf sitting heavily on her chest.”

Justin coughed despite not actually having anything in his mouth. "W-what?" He watched them wrestle with wide eyes, trying lamely to get his book back. "I shouldn't have any recipes for that kind of thing… Do you even know what sort of names they call wizards and things that study that kind of magic?"

Alice picked up the book in her mouth, offering it back to Justin, a bit worse for wear. “You don’t, she was just teasing us. But this one wouldn’t be too bad to stock up on,” she admitted. “Anyways, you’re quite the virile stud already,” she assured.

“Mmmhmm,” Amelia agreed, using her position pinned to the ground to enjoy the view of his undercarriage with a blatant leer.

He let out a breath of relief before he noticed he was being stared at. Being looked at with lewd intention was new to him. Being unclothed was the default, polite ponies just didn't stare at one another's genitals like that. He started to go red quickly as he realized the truth of it. "D-dear! I'm still showing you both around, we can do that afterwards."

Alice got off of Amelia, letting her stand up. “At least behavior yourself until evening… you have a lot of new things to learn here,” the wolf scolded.

“Alright, alright… I’ll pay attention, promise,” Amelia conceded. “Sorry, I was just having a bit of fun,” she added to Justin. So… what should we make first?”

... than planting the right seeds.

A few minor explosions and learning where the shower was in case of fur-related fire incidents later, Justin seemed pleased enough that both wives understood the bare minimum of how each thing worked. Best of all, the end result of their tinkering was one of Justin's favorite treats. They each had a bowl of ice cream, created with the power of alchemy. Seated around the table to nibble at their chilled treats, Justin looked to them both.

"So that's how alchemy works. How different is it?"

Amelia was more than a little distraught about her newfound lack of eyebrows, while Alice was in perfect shape… more a testament to the werewolf’s healing factor than any success at avoiding fiery doom. “Well, any laboratory I’ve ever worked in has had a much better safety record, for one!” Amelia declared. “Though the emergency showers are just as important… you know, we should get a proper emergency eye-washing station set up, too… this feels very important to me now.”

“This isn’t exactly the first time you’ve lost your eyebrows, Amelia,” Alice calmly pointed out. “Also, I’m pretty sure humans don’t use fire or explosions in their ice cream making process. So that’s a pretty big difference.”

He tilted his head and giggled a little. "Oh sure, you can make ice cream without those things, but this way was more fun, and educational." He wobbled a hoof. "Next time you can make it without me and show off your skill." He licked his spoon with a soft sound of delight. "Well, it's our lab now, I guess, so if you want to work on it, I'm up for that."

“Alright, let me show you some of my skills,” Amelia declared, before setting to work. It was a challenge, needing to improvise a bit with the Equestrian equipment and materials, but she thought back to her college days. And over the course of a couple of hours she managed to combine all of the ingredients she needed to make a Dr. Pepper clone, a syrupy sweet prune-based mix combined into carbonated water. Somehow not a single thing exploded… in fact it was almost downright boring to watch. But the end result was a sugar beverage for all to enjoy, that tickled the nose with its bubbliness. “Tada!”

Alice woke up at the announcement, having drifted off somewhere along the way. “Huh, whah?”

It may have been boring to the average pony, but Justin's eyes were riveted on her as she worked. Every combination, every method. Carbonated water? He hadn't expected that. Oh look at her stir! Look at her mix! Each step was a little thing for him to catalog with wonder. "What does this do?" He reached for the creation, bringing it close to sniff before he turned violently away and sneezed, bubbles right up his nose.

“It combines the sugars naturally occurring in the prunes, with the caffeine naturally occurring in the tea leaves, to make a beverage that increases alertness and energy in the short term. And more importantly, it’s tasty. At least if I did it right.. here goes,” Amelia answered before giving it a try. “Aaahh. Yes. A tad bit too much carbonation, but otherwise perfect.”

His tongue reached out, touching its tip against the fluid and slurping it in like a dog might before he seemed to wash it around his snout curiously. "Fascinating… Hmm, I'm not sure the bubbles would ever catch on," said nobody ever after they got popular.

“Well, ponies don’t have the same taste as humans, I’m sure, so it might not. But we can always try offering it to a few and see if they like it,” Amelia suggested. “If it does catch on, it could certainly help with our money troubles.”

“Not if it takes you that long to make one batch,” Alice countered, struggling a bit to pour her cup into her muzzle without spilling.

Justin started counting on his hooves, tapping left to right and right to left as he looked around the room, appearing to be trying to work through something. "We could… maybe. I like the way this could work out." He flashed a bright smile. "We should offer it as an exclusive thing. Rich ponies forgive a lot if it's exclusive enough, and they pay more."

“Well, let’s see if it catches on with ponies first.. maybe try a few adjustments, different flavors. Like… ponies really like carrots and apples?” Amelia asked. “Once we have our recipe down, I can work on streamlining the process, and we can make it a lot faster. Prototypes always take longer to make.”

The concepts being used seemed foreign to Justin. He started gathering up bowls though, partially filled as they were with melted ice cream. "Why would you be in a rush to make a lot of it? Things are nice when they aren't everywhere anyway."

“Well… if I’m only going to make a little bit here and there, I’d like it to be streamlined so I don’t have to spend a lot of my time on it. And if I’m going to make a lot of it, I need it to be streamlined so that I can make enough for everypony,” Amelia said. “Either way, this is fine for a first go at it, a little experiment. We’ll just have to see if we can make a recipe that’ll catch on and decide from there whether to make a career of it, or just a hobby.”

“Everypony?” Alice said quirking a brow. “Don’t you mean ‘everybody’?”

Justin tilted his head. "No, it's everypony normally." He tapped his chin. "I guess there are perks to being the dominant species, um, you know, funny thing. I never even thought about that before." He left the lab, carrying the plates balanced on his back. "Let's go to market and see how much it'd be to get you a supply of the ingredients.

“Here in Equestria, land of the ponies, it’s everypony, anypony, somepony, etc.” Amelia confirmed. “At least I knew that much from the show…”

“That’s just weird and makes no sense,” Alice objected, shaking her head. “Whatever… here, let me help with that.” She helped open the front door for Justin, and get the dishes into the sink for Amelia to deal with later.

“Oh! And next time I’ll have to show you how to make an ice cream float,” Amelia said. “So let’s get the ingredients for the ice cream as well. Vanilla flavor is generally the best for that.”

Justin tilted his head. "I have a good supply of vanilla beans already. Oh! Did I show you my garden? It's not a very big one, but--" He was already gone, dishes deposited and hurrying out the door, leading the two to his garden. "Ta da!" It was about five rows wide and neatly laid out, each labeled neatly with what flower or veggie or fruit waited within.

“I can help you expand the garden,” Alice offered. “I’m really good at digging! And good with plants, you know. Oh! You’ll have to show me where the edge of our territory is, so I don’t go past it.”

“You’re not going to ‘mark’ it are you?” Amelia asked skeptically.

“Of course! Oh… maybe wait for nightfall,” Alice answered, glancing around at the townsponies who were oblivious to the conversation. “But it is very important.”

Justin raised a brow at that. Mark? "Oh, you mean how much land I can use?" He tapped the ground. "I never really had a problem with it before, so long as I didn't make anything ugly or too close to anypony else's stuff. I guess if somepony got really greedy, there'd be a fuss about it, but that's what the mayor's for. You should meet her, she's a nice mare."

“Okay, so… hmm. Halfway to each of your neighbors, left and right… not past the road in the front. Far enough back to make it about a square?” Alice speculated looking around. “I’ll mark it off later, and then start expanding the garden. Do they sell seeds in the market?”

Why was his life in fast forward lately? Justin nodded quickly. "Um, sure." He looked towards the 'road' that was little more than a footpath that wove past his house. "Seeds are kind of seasonal. It's easier to order those from far away, but kinda pricey. Even better is if you have a friend with the plant you want and get some of theirs.

“That’s a good idea,” Alice agreed. “And of course we can use the seeds from our own plants for the next time around… Anyways, it’ll be my little project over the next year or so. As eager as I am to begin, growing things always takes time.”

Amelia gave Justin’s rump a nice firm pat. “Alright then. To the market. Lead the way, my stallion.~”

The trip to the market was a pleasant one. Barely any clouds were scheduled for the day, and the sun was pleasantly warm, not turned up too hot. Birds flittered about, and a few times Alice managed to call a few over for an oddly musical conversation, though the birds insisted on ‘talking’ from the safety of nearby tree branches.

The ponies didn’t react as strongly to the unusual mares as they had before, word having already saturated the small town, though they seemed to trigger whispered exchanges in the distance all around them.

Justin did his best to pay them as little mind as possible, which all seemed fine in theory, but his eyes and ears strayed towards those whispered conversations as he went. "Sunny Petal usually has a few seeds, usually of pretty things, but sometimes more useful things. I swear she just wants to see pretty flowers on everyone's windowsill."

“Hmm. Do ponies eat flowers?” Amelia wondered as they walked. “They do in the show, but I keep assuming I’ll find some details are wrong as we go. And a flower-based soda flavor wouldn’t appeal to humans but might just hit the spot for pony customers.”

“Are you still on about that? Alright, I guess it makes sense to coordinate, with me growing whatever you’re going to make your drinks out of,” Alice conceded. “Is that Sunny Petal?” she asked, dipping her head toward a nearby mare with a sunflower for a cutie mark.

The aforementioned mare caught her name and finished her whispered conversation with a unicorn mare bearing an image of a lyre on her flank and a matching instrument tied to her back. The unicorn, High Note, tended to come and go, bringing music and news from one small town to another.

"Hello, High, Sunny. I've brought a new customer for you, Sunny." He gestured to his… interesting partner. "These lovely ladies have set their eyes on my garden and want to expand it, and we're hoping you have a nice batch of seeds for us today." As for the other question, his mind whirred gently in thought, but he didn't directly answer.

“Oh, sure thing! Let me show you my wares!” the flower mare said cheerfully as she led the way to her little shop. She had plenty of grown flowers for sale as well, but led them past to the collection of seed packets she had been preparing.

“Nice to finally see the talk of the town with my own eyes,” High Note commented to Justin, even as her eyes kept trained on the alien ‘mares’. “Where did you ever find these two?”

"I'm not sure you'd believe me even if I told you." He smiled at her and sat down, letting his wives go on without him to peruse the selection. "But it was definitely destiny that led us together. Not even one day and already things are just… clicking."

“Well, I’m no stranger to unbelievable stories,” High Note said, “and any one that involves finding those two is sure to be out of the ordinary. So… share? Please? Bonus points if it involves true love.” She giggled happily.

He joined her in the giggle, though his had a hint of nervousness. "Oh, well… I kind of got pulled away." He considered a moment. "It was a little filly. I was her dying wish, kind of... Kind of a sad way to get there. She wasn't a pony filly, she was like her." He pointed at his human mate. "She wanted a pony, like me, so she got me."

“Pulled away?” High Note inquired. “What do you mean? Pulled away where?”

Amelia glanced back, wondering why she was being pointed at, but couldn’t hear the conversation so she returned to her own conversation with Sunny Petal, who was pointing out several lovely varieties of flowers.

He lifted his shoulders. "They could tell you more about it than I ever could. It was a place without ponies, at least like us. That much I gathered… The girl was… was… Oh you're not going to believe me at all, but she was a ghost. She was a ghost and I was her final wish." The fact of that clearly still had an impact on Justin, as he began to shiver a little with the retelling.

“A ghost? Really? Where did you find a ghost? Or did she just come knocking at your door? “ High asked. She didn’t sound as dismissive as some would be.

Alice seemed to be quite animatedly engaged with Sunny, both getting quite excited about something.

Justin pointed out towards the fateful forest. "I was out doing some gathering, or I was trying, and she found me there. I couldn't even tell you exactly how it worked, but I ended up in her world, in a great big fire of all things! I thought I might choke to death in all the smoke, but I managed to save somepony, only he wasn't a pony at all."

“In the Ghost Haunt Woods? I’m not sure if that makes your story more or less believable,” High Note pondered. “Doesn’t matter, this story has everything! So you saved somepony from a fire… you said he, so it wasn’t one of these two. Right? They are female, right?” They didn’t have any of the normal tells, though she probably would have spotted something if Alice were male.

He bobbed his head quickly. "Of course they are," says the defensive husband. "I found a safe place to lay down a moment and catch my breath with that guy, then here comes Miss Wolf and scares us both almost to death. He ran off, and she got me." He flashed a sudden smile. "I never got away."

“Oh? I’d better start taking notes.~” the unicorn mare said with a laugh, quickly drawing quill and scroll to start jotting things down. “You don’t seem to mind, so I’m taking it she wasn’t too mean about it… what about the other one?”

He shook his head quickly. "She wasn't mean, just a little scary at first. She's a very nice person." He tapped his chin softly. "You should talk to them though. I feel weird talking about them like they're not right there." A little smile spread on his snout. "I'll say I love them both so very much, and even if they aren't ponies, they love me back."

“Alright, I think I’ll do that. Thanks for the story though! Can’t wait to put it to music…” she mused as she trotted off to try to interview the mysterious foreigners. Things had apparently devolved to small talk anyways, so she quickly nosed her way in and started talking to Justin’s mares eagerly.

... than having a sunny disposition.

Justin watched a moment, smiling. Seeing the local ponies chatting with his mares was a good sign for sure. Things would work out. He gazed up at the bright sky. "Don't worry, I'll be coming soon." He licked his lips then called out into the shop, "Going to check for what we need, I'll be back." And off he went to see what he could get for making more of that mysterious drink.

The tea leaves for the caffeination were easy to find and purchase. Apparently she needed yeast for some reason, which was easy enough to get as a baking supply. Prunes were a bit short on supply, but she had mentioned wanting to try other flavors, so some carrots and apples rounded out the shopping trip.

When he checked out, Alice was sniffing her way toward him. Amelia got her attention by calling out his name and waving as they approached, with a fairly impressive bag of seed packets in her arms. “Hey Justin, Alice has a bit of an errand she promised to run later. Looks like you found most of what we need for my thing… anything else you want to do while we’re out?”

Justin swayed a little, making his saddlebags jiggle. "I got just about everything. Is everypony treating you well?" His tone of voice implied he had little doubt things were going the way they should. "Why don't we get everything tucked away and spend the day out?"

“So far so good,” Amelia assured. “I think that High Note is planning to turn our arrival into some kind of bard song… I have a feeling it’ll be off in hilarious ways, but I guess there’s no harm in it.”

“I need to visit Sunny Petal’s garden today to help out. Some of her plants aren’t doing as well as the others, and that’s half of what I owe her for the seeds,” Alice pointed out. “I bartered that, along with repaying her seed for seed from the plants once they bloom.”

He perked an ear at Alice. "Are you sure you can do anything for them? Sunny's pretty good at taking care of her flowers. If she can't figure it out." He rubbed at his cheek lightly. "I hope it turns out well." He turned for the house and got to trotting. Once all the shopping goods were tucked away in the pantry, he emerged with a smile. "An idea! Let's prepare a batch and offer it during lunch, see how ponies besides me like it."

“Sounds good to me,” Amelia said. “Hey, Alice, you want to take care of your errand, and meet us back at the house? We should have plenty of CO2 ready for the next batch already, and the syrup doesn’t take that long to make.”

“If you don’t mind, Justin?” Alice agreed. “I’m sure it will go quite smoothly. Nothing could possibly go wrong.”

“Do you say that just to antagonize me?” Amelia asked with a groan. “You know how I feel about lines like that…”

“You’re just being superstitious again,” Alice said, rolling her eyes.

Justin waved a hoof placatingly. "No no. I can handle making some fizzy for her drink, no problem! It's not a tricky alchemical process." Though his mention of alchemy at all may be cause for alarm. "Let's get to it. We'll meet you back at the house, actually, no." He turned and pointed to a grassy hill. "Let's meet there in an hour or two. We'll enjoy a nibble and share."

“Justin, dearest, I love you, but leave the carbonation to me, okay?” Amelia requested with the slightest hint of fear. “I’ll let you make the new flavoring syrups, okay?”

Alice waved a paw farewell, before stalking off down another street, tracking Sunny Petal’s scent back to her garden, easily. She had to stop several times to exchange greetings with neighbors along her path to diffuse their nervousness at a wolf sniffing her way through town, but by now at least everypony had heard of her.

Sunny Petal was easy to find, sitting in her garden and looking a bit petulant. Many of her various flowers were sagging a little. "Here they are, just as I mentioned. They grow just fine, but they look so… unhappy. Look at them!" She thrust a hoof out at her garden.

“Unhappy flowers?” Alice asked as she approached them, nodding. She got down on her belly, close the flowers and started whispering to them, her ears twitching a bit as she paused after each inquiry, listening to the silent plants. She moved from one plant to another, occasionally doubling back, as she interrogated the vegetation.

Sunny's eyes were locked on Alice, following her around the yard and her precious flowers. "What are they saying?" It seemed the idea that someone, or pony, or wolf, could talk to her flowers wasn't immediately alien to her. "Do you know what's wrong with them?" Her tone was anxious and desperate.

“Are you doing okay, Sunny?” Alice asked back. “Stallion troubles? Or lack-of-stallion troubles maybe? They say you don’t sing as often anymore, and when you do it’s not as joyful as they remember.”

Sunny colored brightly in her cheeks. "W-what?! That's none of your business!" She turned away, shamefaced and flustered as she hoofed at her cheeks, trying to fight down the burning blush.

Alice waved a paw. “I can’t say I’m the best to give advice on that sort of thing, but.. if you want happy flowers, it’s best to show them your cheerful side. I can do something to help, while I’m here, but in the long run... is there anything I can do to help you?”

Sunny looked over her shoulder. "You're serious, aren't you?" She slowly turned back around. "I don't need a stallion of all things, sheesh!" She crossed her forelegs, sitting up on her hindlegs. "But… I haven't seen my parents for a while… They live so far away." She pouted a little. "I miss them." The blush came back. "Oh there I go, gushing to somepony I barely know!"

“Are you on good terms with them?” Alice prodded. “Perhaps you could spare the time for a trip to see them? That sounds easier than stallion troubles to me. As long as you’re not… “ the wolf trailed off, slipping a bit into introspection before shaking her head. “You should see them,” she reiterated.

One of her brows raised high. "Not what? We're on perfectly good terms, we're just so busy all the time." She spread her hooves before falling to all four and rising. "Maybe I should make the time though…" She looked over her flowers and cracked a little smile. "Who wants to be mom's and dad's flowers?"

Alice’s ears flicked about, back and forth, before she pointed out a few. “Those ones look good to me. Now, if you’ll give me a moment…” The wolf warmed up her throat a bit before launching into a song of her own. It was a wordless song, pure acapella music that seemed to echo back in harmony with itself. There was magic to it, as well, a bit on the flashy side, as the whole area seemed to dim a bit, the light fading in general, as ripples of green light spread from the wolf and began to resonate amongst the flora. The flowers perked up immediately, winds rising to make them seem to dance, or perhaps it was their dancing kicking up a wind? It seemed to take forever, mesmerizing the world within a single endless moment before it finally faded, becoming unclear in the memory like a dream as Sunny had the sensation like she was awakening from an unplanned nap.

Sunny jumped a little as the magic took hold of the area, but her perking flowers brought a brighter smile to her snout as she moved to claim them. "Oh you're just simply the best." She paused a moment. "When you get your mind out of the gutter." She set the flowers down and reached back to produce a bag of bits from nowhere at all and fished out a few to offer to Alice. "Here."

Alice gratefully accepted the bits, though she wasn’t quite sure how to carry them so she held them awkwardly in one paw for the time being. She was panting a bit from the effort, the song seemingly having taken a bit out of her. “I think Amy’s being a bad influence on me,” the wolf mused. “I hope you have a great time with your parents though!”

Sunny offered a cheerful wave. "It's been far too long. I'll send them a letter and get on my way." She turned and trotted towards her house, whistling a merry tune along the way. Unseen to her, her flowers perked up just a tiny bit.

Alice quirked her own ears, listening in to the song and feeling the pony’s inherent magic at work. “Huh,” she commented before shrugging and heading off. She secured the few bits in the safest spot she could manage, her mouth, being careful not to accidentally swallow them as she made her way to the hill where she would meet her mates.

... than doing market research.

For the life of her, Amelia couldn’t remember how or when they had managed to cobble together the little wooden booth in the town’s market square. It was amusingly reminiscent of a classic lemonade stand, but in their case they had pressurized bottles of carbonated, caffeinated, fruit flavored soda pop to distribute. And for the low, low price of an honest opinion. That wasn’t enough to pay for the ingredients, of course, but it would do a lot to help identify which flavors would be the best sellers.

Seated there with a big smile forced on his face, Justin Thyme was on time and ready for action. When the first pony wandered past, he leaned far forward. "Hello madame! Would you like to t--" he trailed off, his overly loud greeting sending her scurrying. "Sorry…" Spokesponyship was clearly not his strength. "Next one, alright, I can do this…"

The next passerby was a large, powerful looking stallion by the name of Steady Pace. He ran the local hay mill, a dull job that mostly involved walking in a circle all day. Not to power the mill: that was wind powered; but to bring the hay from the barn where it was stored to the mill, and then carry the resultant flour to the wagon to be ready for market. Occassionaly he got to take a break from that to draw the wagon in a much larger circle, and at the moment he was on his way back to the mill. His cutie mark, a simple black circle on his hay-colored flank, inspired him with the patience his job required.

Justin smiled at the dull pony, making a mental note to keep his voice down. "Hello there, Steady. How are things going?" He leaned up, crossing his legs on the counter. "You're looking like you're working hard."

Steady nodded quietly. “The wagon’s empty going this way, so this is the easy part of the loop,” he commented. “What are you up to, Justin?” Steady Pace was still walking, though not all that quickly.

Justin grabbed a bottle. "Well, just your lucky day. We've made some great drinks to quench the throats of thirsty hardworking gents just like yourself." He held it as if displaying something of great value. "Free for today as a thank you to ponies just like you, all we want is your opinion on it."

“Oh, well.. you’re welcome?” Steady said with a hint of confusion. “I think I can afford that.” He took the sample, an apple flavored soda, and took a sip. The first sip caused an involuntary giggle as the carbonation tickled his nose, causing him to stop and consider it.

Inwardly, Justin broke into a great smile. Outwardly, he struggled to keep his expression stamped down to a general niceness, and it was hard. He kept showing little flashes of that grin before he could fight it down. "How do you like it?" He glanced towards his new wives, seeing where they were in proximity to their first test.

Amelia had a clipboard in hand, already taking notes about the pony’s reactions, an eager grin already plastered on her face. The whole scenario was almost surreal to her. Doing science on real life, honest to goodness, cutie-mark bearing talking ponies.

Alice, for her part, looked bored. And tired. Even though day here was night back home, her body insisted she should be nocturnal and was pushing her toward flipping back around. She checked and rechecked their inventory just to try to force herself to stay awake and engaged.

Finally, Steady Pace was able to get used to the bubbles enough to steadily drink down the beverage. “It’s got a good flavor. Like apples, but bubblier. Kind of fun? I think I like apple cider better though,” he offered. “Well, good luck! And thanks for the drink.” He took up his load once more and trotted toward his home with the wagon in tow, walking much faster than he had when he arrived.

Justin waved perhaps a bit overly eagerly. "You have a great day!" He swung on Amelia. "Did you see that? He was re-energized! We could emphasize that." He bounced in place with little giggles. "And he liked the taste, that's good too!"

“That would be the caffeine,” Amelia noted aloud and on her clipboard. “It’s like a cup of coffee in that sense.”

He tilted his head sharply. "Coffee that tastes sweet and is bubbly? Maybe…" His look got far off a moment. "You have something big here."

“I’m guessing not everypony cares for the taste of coffee. Oh! Here comes another customer. Look lively!” Amelia advised.

Gentle Breeze alighted before them with a graceful swoop. “Hi Justin! Hello again, Alice, Amelia,” she said, nodding to each in turn, but getting the women’s names mixed up. “This your latest potion, Justin? What’s it do?”

He leaned forward with another bottle in his hooves, balanced between them. "Taste delicious, and it'll put a pep in your step! We're sharing it with good friends, and all we're asking is to hear how much you love it." His smile came, goofy and a bit too large. "Want a cup?"

“Sure!” Gentle Breeze accepted quickly before looking at it skeptically for a moment. “It’s not going to turn me a different color, or make my fur fall out, or anything, is it?”

“No, no, no, no,” Amelia assured. “This stuff is made with science, not so much alchemy. It’s basically like a cup of coffee, but sweeter and bubblier, and fruit flavored. Which one’s that? Mango and orange? Let us know what you think. We need to know which flavors taste the best so we know what to make more of.”

Justin looked just a bit nettled at the phrasing. "As if science were so much better," he grumbled to himself, sitting down on his haunches and letting the two mares hash things out.

Alice took a moment to lick his cheek. “I’m sure she’ll come around once she learns to do some real alchemy.”

Gentle Breeze took a careful sip before downing the bottle quickly. “Oh, wow, that is pretty good. You said you had more flavors? I want to try them all!” She started buzzing about them quickly, viewing the supply of soda from every angle and kicking up more wind than her name would imply.

Amelia struggled to keep her papers attached to the clipboard. “Woah, now. Why don’t you come back in an hour and try another? It’s probably best to space them out a bit,” she suggested.

Justin watched his friend buzz around so flightfully. "You really like it, huh?" A hoof reached out for Amelia, draping over her a moment.

“I’m going to tell the other weather pegasi!” Gentle claimed. “I’ll be right back!” And with that the pegasus was gone, disappeared among the clouds.

Justin and his mares were left in silence for a bit, left to wonder who would be next to visit their little stand. While they waited, he reached over and poked at Amelia. "You know…"

Before he could get any further, a proper looking stallion came strolling down the road and caught Justin's attention firmly. "Oh! Mister Mayor, sir."

He nodded his chubby cheeks. "Good to see you outside, Justin. Are these the odd mares I keep hearing so much about?" His eyes wandered back and forth. "They aren't ponies," he noted with a keen grasp of what was before him.

“No sir,” Amelia said, setting her clipboard aside to offer him a hand shake. “My name is Amelia, and I’m a human. And my friend here is Alice. She’s a wolf, obviously.”

Alice yawned, blinking at the chubby stallion, and shaking her head to clear her thoughts. “A pleasure to meet you, mayor,” she added tiredly.

"How can she be a wolf?" He tilted his head. "They're made of sticks and things, and they're a lot more growly…" His gaze turned to Justin. "Are you bringing trouble into our fair town?"

Justin's hooves came up quickly, waving them around. "No! No no! We're not making any trouble at all, promise!"

“I assure you, I’m made entirely of meat,” Alice said. “And I don’t eat ponies,” she said, as much as a reminder to herself as an assurance to the mayor. “But if any predators are giving you trouble, you can come to me and I’ll happily drive them off for you.”

“She’s not a timber wolf, mayor. Though she can get growly sometimes, but I assure you she won’t bite anypony,” Amelia added. “Have you had trouble with timber wolves in these parts?”

He stroked his chin softly. "Well, once in awhile, but not often, thankfully. That's why we have the sheriff and his ponies." He suddenly noticed something else. "Oh, are you selling something?" He came closer, as if forgetting the wolf issue entirely.

Justin grabbed for a bottle, some of it sloshing out in his eagerness. "Oh! It's a new and amazing drink to rejuvenate tired ponies while tasting great!" He grinned all too-widely at the potential customer.

“For today only, we’re offering it free of charge, in exchange for your opinion on it,” Amelia explained. “We’re trying to find out which flavors ponies like best. We have apple, orange with mango, rose, and prune. Which would you like to try?”

“Has anyone even tried the rose yet?” Alice asked.

The mayor thrust a hoof at the bottle from which the rose scent comes. "I'll be the first. A refined taste for a refined pony." He was as refined as their little town could reasonably expect to be, and puffed himself up with pride.

Amelia immediately handed him the indicated bottle, as soon as it was opened. “It’s carbonated, so you may feel a bit of a tickle in your nose. That’s quite normal,” she warned. Once her hand was free, she immediately picked the clipboard back up, eagerly awaiting his response.

Alice, for her part, curled back up to hide her face from the annoyingly bright sun. Though she didn’t mind the warmth one bit. Soon her muffled snores were drifting from beneath her paws.

Justin watched over Alice, becoming her protector, for all the fury that his little fuzzy body could likely muster in case of emergency. Not paying attention to him, the mayor sampled the rose 'Mmm, curious... Kick's like a mule." He licked over his lips. "Not bad."

“Only ‘not bad’?” Amelia asked. “Is it something you think you would like to have more of in the future? Would you recommend it to friends or family?”

The question seemed to throw him off balance. "Hmm? It's not bad… Maybe… As a stand in for white wine? I'd have to try it in a proper setting, but not bad, not bad." He waved it away as he turned. "Keep up the work."

Amelia nodded and scribbled furiously, recording his reactions for future reference. “Thanks for your time, Mayor,” she said.

Before the mayor could even get out of earshot, the local weather team descended upon the stand. A half-dozen ponies strong, the weather team already had a bit of a strong sweat going from the morning rush, setting the day’s scheduled cloud cover into motion.

“Is it too soon to have another?” Gentle Breeze asked over the cacophony of the other ponies’ cross talk. The next several minutes was a confused blur as they distributed samples and Amelia did her best to sort through their comments while they talked to and over one another.

Alice managed to make things a bit harder by joining in on a side conversation, chatting at first with the two stallions in the group, before one of the mares joined in, distracting them all from the taste test.

Justin did his part to help things move along, serving, smiling, and gently prying. "Isn't that a nice flavor? I thought of you when I suggested it." More smiling. He sweated a little from the crowd, perhaps overwhelmed even as he faced it.

The crowd from the weather team got the attention of more curious ponies, and by lunch time they had given out their full supply. They were finally able to relax, aside from the relatively tranquil effort to clean up the empty bottles and such.

... than having some alone time.

“How are you holding up?” Alice inquired, nudging the stallion with her nose, while Amelia cleaned up the rest of the mess. “You smelled a bit stressed. You don’t like crowds?”

Justin perked an ear. "Well, um… My job normally keeps me away from most ponies, at least, at a time…" He rolled his hooves over themselves. "I don't mind one or two, but a group makes me start to get nervous. I keep worrying they'll all notice something wrong and just… stare at me. I know it's stupid! But…"

“Heh, that sounds familiar,” Alice said. “I’m used to trying so hard to make sure people don’t notice me, or if they do that they think I’m just some wild animal, or maybe a pet. But even those can get me in trouble back home. Here it’s so… freeing, to just know your fellow ponies might get a bit nervous at worst. But I’m still not actually used to it, you know?” She shook her head. “Even when I was disguised as a human, I always thought people would see right through it if I gave them half a chance.”

Justin tilted his head. "Well, yeah, you did the smart, brave, thing, and just came out with it. Everypony knows you're a wolf, and they're alright with it." He looked around slowly. "You're going, I mean, we, we're going to have to figure out how to make a lot more of this, or market it differently. If the entire town decides they want it all the time, we can't keep up with that."

“How much did these bottles cost you? We can include the cost of the bottle in the price, and give it back in the form of a discount on the next bottle if they return it,” Amelia said. “We’ll still need more bottles, regardless. I’m sure I can get things going in a streamlined fashion once we decide which flavors we’re going to stick with.” She rubbed her hands together excitedly. “

Rubbing his hooves together fretfully, Justin considered a moment. "Well, if we want more just like these, I usually order them from the city. We don't make glass here in town, so it may take a week or two to get unless we want to pay a lot for rush shipping. Assuming we don't do that, about five bits a bottle. That's why we usually clean them out and reuse them."

“So.. six bits for a bottle, and you get five back if you return the bottle? Or is a bit a drink too cheap? I’m not used to the prices here,” Amelia mused.

“We should make a trip to the city. We should meet the princesses anyways, and it’ll be a good way to get the bottles to bring back,” Alice concluded. “Any reason we can’t go in the morning?”

Perking up and sitting upright suddenly as if called in class, Justin shook his head. "No specific reason. We should make what we can and use the money for the trip and bottles." He sighed softly. "I wasn't expecting this… I didn't have much in the way of savings for two ambitious wives."

“This sounds like a job for a business loan!” Amelia declared.

Alice whined and put a paw over her snout. “Do we have to go into debt at the first opportunity? Why don’t we do like Justin was suggesting? Maybe we can try selling with the bottles we have for a week and see what we can make first?”

Justin bobbed his head in agreement with Alice. "Besides, all the fancy banks are anywhere but here. We could ask the mayor or somepony else that's a bit more well-to-do to lend us something, but then we'd owe them. Mother told me to never buy what you couldn't afford."

“Alright, alright. We just got here in this world, we don’t need to start a business on the first week,” Amelia conceded. “We’ll take it slow. But do we have at least enough to take the trip and get a few dozen bottles? We can always get more with the profits if things work out well.”

“And I want to meet Luna,” Alice added with a wag of her tail.

Which became exactly as they did. Justin's house, previously out of the way, became a new gathering point for thirsty ponies. They made use of the bottles Justin had collected for his potions, but also served many an eager pony with a glass right then and there, which could be cleaned and used again. By the time they had enough to make the trip comfortably and stock up on supplies, they had gained some reputation in the town. Some couldn't even imagine just being able to go home with the stuff rather than hanging out.

This was all to Justin's mild discomfort. His safe places had become much noisier and full of life. On one hoof, he didn't begrudge the sight of neighbors and friends, and they were all having a good time, and paying his new family well, but he looked a tiny bit more agitated by the day without his alone time.

Some of that money had gone into buying a larger bed, one they could all sleep on comfortably. While a larger house was a long term necessity, especially with it serving as a store front, the larger bed was urgent enough and affordable enough to come first, even if it meant stuffing the bedroom with a furnishing far too large for the modest space.

Laying in that large bed the night before they planned to take the train ride, snuggled between his satisfied and sleeping mares, Justin caught sight of the moon through his bedroom window. It wasn’t full yet, merely three-quarters, but it still seemed to be doing something to him. Calling to him, somehow, begging him to come outside and get a better look.

Justin swiveled his ears to his relaxing wives before he began gently sliding forward, pulling himself free of their lovely presence and almost falling to the floor. He landed on his hooves with the faintest of clops and started for the door. He just needed some alone time, and the night? It was a fine time to get some alone time… Eager, he cantered out of the house with head held up high.

Alice stirred lightly for a moment as he passed, but all that came of it was a light wag. Working all day with her new family, day after day, had kept her from slipping into the nocturnal schedule that was natural to her, and a vigorous session with her stallion had drained what energy was left in her.

So Justin was alone when he got out into the moonlight. The moons rays bathing him and filling him with a strange and unfamiliar sense of energy. It made him want to yell at the top of his lungs, and run and jump and hunt. Anything but think clearly.

Of course, hunting for a pony was a bit different than it might be for a human or a wolf, and his nose went right for the ground. He began to sniff along, looking for a treat he couldn't get every day. Without paying attention, he ended up in his friend's garden, chewing voraciously on some of her poor flowers, mmm.

The flowers were a good start. Food, fuel, energy! A small garden snake caught his attention, looking far more appetizing than he remembered snakes being. Well it was green at least? An absentminded lick of his teeth as he observed the slow slither made him aware that his teeth were a lot sharper than he remembered them being.

Confusion came, but passed, subdued by the hunger that grew within him with every gentle thump of his heart. What did snake even taste like? There was only one way to find out. His rump went high and his head low, looking like a predator ready to pounce despite being a pony. Eyes locked on the snake, he waited for it to coil in rest, hunger only growing. It was quiet, all so quiet… then he jumped, pouncing for the creature.

The snake was easy prey, foolishly thinking itself safe in the pony lands, and it was easy enough to slurp down like a noodle after the first, fatal bite. The iron taste of the blood, the fresh raw meat… yesterday it probably would have turned his stomach, but tonight it was delicious. It didn’t take long to finish his food, but by the time he did, and looked up, there was a strange pony sitting in front of him, staring at him quietly.

She was dark brown in fur, mottled with slightly lighter patches not a single solid color like most ponies. She had long fuzzy tufts on her ears, a pair of sharp fangs protruded over her lower lips, and her irises were narrow vertical slits. She looked every bit the part of a lunar pegasus aside from the simple fact that she lacked wings of any kind.

She was lithe, with a build more fitting to a unicorn than an earth pony, though she lacked a horn as well. And her flank was unadorned, likely a sore point as she was clearly an adult in every other sense. Something told Justin she ought to be familiar, that he should be able to remember her, but nothing about her looked like anypony he had ever met.

Justin gave a slow blink at the new predator, even feeling a sudden thrill. Were they competition? He was satisfied, for the moment. With upright ears he looked over the exotic mare. Talking would be logical, and yet, to do so felt so far away from what he could and should do. Instead he approached her, nose dancing, trying to capture her scent.

Her scent! That was where the familiarity lie, he was sure of it, though it was also quite unique. Knowing how pony ‘tribes’ worked, perhaps he knew a cousin of hers? She sniffed back at him, even as he managed to pick out more of the layers of her scent. Wolf. She had a bit of wolf scent on her. It wasn’t hers though, it was Alice’s. He hadn’t noticed at first, since he had plenty of that on him, making it harder to pick apart, but she definitely had Alice’s scent on her somehow.

“Hi,” she finally managed, speaking a bit awkwardly, like she wasn’t used to it. She looked around a bit, like she was struggling for clarity. “Are there any more?” she finally managed, yelping a bit at the end as she bit her tongue with one of those sharp fangs.

Hearing her talk made him jump, and his own words came back to him. "What? Huh? Oh!" He moved right back in, aiming to press his wet snout into her cheek. "Is that you? Wait, is it?" His eyes turned upwards towards the sky, his fog penetrated and mind whirring with wonderment. "Are we?"

The mare before him seemed a bit overwhelmed by the questions for a moment, looking bewildered before she could settle on a question. “Justin?” She had to work through the fog a bit more before she could manage. “It’s me. Amelia! You’re a wolf now? Why am I pony?!” She seemed to be panicking a bit, looking about like she was looking for a place to hide.

He's a wolf? Justin looked at himself suddenly, taking in his changed features, and his new wagging tail. "Oh my… We're… Um… We knew this was coming, don't panic, don't panic…" he said, even as his heart raced and his pupils dilated, doing his best impression of a pony ready to panic. "We… have each other. There's nothing to be scared of."

“Right, right… don’t panic..” Amelia said, looking up at the moon. “It’s not even full yet… and why aren’t I a wolf too? What even am I?” she said, holding up her fuzzy forehooves to look at them. “I was prepared to be a wolf, not… this? Wait, did you just eat a snake?”

"Oh Celestia, I did!" He extended his tongue and pawed at it as if the scrub the filth from it in a manic display of disgust. His eyes turned to her then. "You're not a wolf… but you're… You…" He moved to her and gently bumped noses. "This may not be the right time, but you're amazing." She was everything that could thrill him, sleek and predator. It was rather like Alice, but in a more familiar pony form, still twisted to danger. "You could hunt me any day…" He went bright red almost instantly, realizing what he had said.

“Oh I could, could I?” she asked playfully, reaching in to give his neck a playful nip. She darted back away a moment later, ducking deeper into the flowerbed and vanishing from sight entirely among the taller plants. Even enhanced as it was, Justin’s sense of smell lost track of her among the flowers, and his keen ears couldn’t hear her rustling.

Recovering from the nip and the shameful squeaking growl that came from it, he looked around. Where had she gone? He went towards where she was a moment before. "Are you there?" His new nose twitched, taking in the scents of the night in all their splendor. The world was so different… "Amelia?"

“Rar!” she answered playfully as she pounced his hindquarters, giving his tail a playful swat. When she emerged she seemed to practically pop into all of his senses all at once, suddenly visible at the same moment he heard her pouncing, her scent flooding his nostrils all at once. “How’d I do?” she asked with a giggle.

He put a paw to his chest, trying to calm himself, but he hadn't run, which was a step up on the ole predator prey index. "Y-you did great. How'd you do that? I couldn't see you at all, or smell you even." He frowned. "I'm not used to saying that. I don't normally smell friends before seeing them." His nose danced lightly. "You really are a predator of the night."

“Well, I was hiding in flowers, so maybe they masked my-” Amelia began, before a beam of light suddenly spilled down toward them from a window.

“A-alice, is that you?” came the nervous voice of Willow Whisper, the mare whose garden they were stalking about in. A bit of a recluse, and timid even for a pony, the middle aged earth pony mare had never made it clear to Justin just what it was she did for a living.

Justin tensed, far from the first time of the evening. "Sorry!" He just out and blurted, and bolted right out of the garden, leaving nothing but the remains of a sheepish wolf. On new paws, he rushed for home, his fugue gone, and wanting to be where it was safe and familiar, away from strange eyes, even those of his neighbors.

“Justin?” Willow said more quietly, as she watched a wolf and a pony leave her garden in the moonlight. She watched a bit longer on quiet confusion before accepting her own conclusion as to what just happened, and closing her shutters.

Amelia traced after Justin closely, making it most of the way home before looking down at her hooves and promptly tripping, falling face first into the dirt road. “Ooof,” she said, groaning as she shook herself off. “Do not question the hooves. They know what they’re doing as long as you don’t question them, so don’t ever question the hooves…”

Justin slowed when he heard the thump and was soon at Amelia's side. "Are you alright? Sorry for dashing off like that… I… I kind of panicked there." He leaned in to nuzzle her softly. "I wasn't lying though, you really are kind of… pretty."

Alice opened the front door for them, beckoning them inside. “So you two actually woke up this time? That’s good,” she commented. “Come on in, we need to talk.”

Amelia paused in her response to her stallion, long enough to look up at Alice. “This time?... what have you been hiding from us?” She headed into the living room, even as she said quietly to Justin “I’m your wife, you should leave off the ‘kind of’.”

Justin perked his new ears. "We were turning into things in our sleep?! Why didn't you wake us up." He reared up, balancing on his hind legs in a squat as he held out his forepaws. "Look! I have paws! I'm a wolf! Oh no, do I have my cutie mark?!" He started spinning in place, trying to get a good eye on it in his worry.

Justin’s cutie mark was still on display, even the magic of turning into a wolf hadn’t hidden the magic of destiny’s mark. It looked a bit different on wolf fur than pony fur, but it was still instantly recognizable… to those who could actually get a good look.

“It’s still there, Justin,” Amelia reassured him. “Even if it’s a bit shaggy.” She turned her attention back to the female wolf. “Why didn’t you tell me I was turning into a… were-pony?”

“You both needed a bit of time for your new spirits to acclimatize,” Alice explained patiently. “I was keeping an eye out and making sure you didn’t get into too much trouble. Well, trying. You can be hard to keep tabs on,” Alice said, frowning at Amelia for a moment. “But now that you’re awake… I’d like you two to come with me, please. If you’re ready?” She stood by the door, looking at them questioningly.

Amelia pawed at the rug a bit, looking uncertain. “Care to explain before we go?”

Justin perked an ear, his breathing starting to calm down a little. "Wait, you mean we were running wild?" He glanced around. "We didn't hurt anypony, or anything, did we?" He bumped alongside Amelia. "I'm not sure why you wouldn't tell us, even if we couldn't do much about it." Despite that all, he had been given an order, and he was a good pony, and so obeyed his wife, trott--, er, walking inside.

... than meeting yourself.

“Your wolf spirit,” Alice said, pointing her nose toward Justin, before pointing toward Amelia in turn. “... and your, uh, pony spirit? They needed a bit of time to grow and mature. But now that you’ve awakened, it’s time for you to meet them face to face. You need to confront them and make it clear who is the boss. This is important, Justin. It’s cute and fine that you’re happy to roll over for Alicia and me, but you need to be stronger than your wolf spirit. If you ever find yourself wavering, just remember how disapproving I’m going to be if you back down to him.”

“I guess that makes sense for a wolf, but what about me? Ponies don’t work that way, do they?” Amelia asked, turning to Justin.

Alice shrugged. “You know more about ponies than I do… I’m just hoping the same magic will work for you as will work for Justin. With a wolf, it’s simple. Justin, you just need to stare him down. Be confident, so that you will look and smell confident, and he will submit. Wolves seldom change their social order, so once you’ve established that you’re in charge, he shouldn’t be a problem. But if you submit to him…” she looked away, then shook her head. “Don’t.”

Justin looked a little confused. "Why can't we be partners?" He tapped at his canine snout. "We're both together, like it or not, so why not be friends about it instead of arguing?" His tail began to wag softly. "Being a dog is still weird though." Not that he was a dog, technically.

Alice thought about it a moment, wondering how to explain. “Do you think of us and friends, and partners?” she asked Justin sweetly, gesturing to be clear she was referring only to herself and her stallion.

He nodded quickly. "If your wife can't be the best friend you have, I think something went wrong somewhere." He moved to close the distance. "I'm your friend, right?"

“Who’s in charge?” she asked him quickly and sharply. The look of firm determination in her eyes made it really clear what the right answer was.

His ears went back. "I suppose you are…" He glanced back and away, already giving up that particular challenge that he wasn't even aware of. "Are all wolf things like this?"

“We can be great friends, as long as we both know who’s in charge,” she said, before nuzzling his cheek. “We don’t have to fight, we can be great friends. See? No need for me to be bossy, or mean.” She licked his cheek and nibbled his ear, emphasizing her point.

He gave a little growl of appreciation before he pounced for her, trying to wrestle with her and failing a bit badly, as only one who is not normally a wolf or prone to wrestling could do, but it's done energetically. "Alright, so what do I have to do?"

“We need to go into the woods,” Alice said from her new position atop her stallion, teasing him with her wagging tail. “I’ve found a pool of water there that will be perfect for what we need to do. And we need to go soon, so we can get there when the moon is at its highest. Once we’re there, I can work my magic and allow you to meet your new self. Simple enough?”

“Simple enough,” Amelia confirmed. “I just hope it works for me too.”

Justin pointed at Amelia. "If she has a pony, what's the rush? We're not the most confrontational sorts. Are pony spirits?" He moved where he was guided, despite his arguments, seemingly borne more out of curiosity than any genuine need to contradict.

Alice lead the way, taking them back outside, and away from the town, toward the nearby Ghost Haunt Woods, where Justin’s adventures had first begun. “It’s better for her to meet her new self sooner, rather than later. But you have a good point. A good ole’ stare-down is a good way to assert yourself with a wolf spirit, but what’s the best way to convince a pony that you’re in charge?”

Amelia followed along, quickly disappearing from their perception as soon as they reached the shadows of the woods. It just helped to highlight how dangerous the place could be. If Amelia was hidden somewhere in the nearby foliage, what other dangers were as well? Sharp wolf senses did much to reveal what was there, but could do nothing to prove that imagined dangers weren’t also present, hidden even better than a wolf could sense.

Alice’s confidence, however, did much to calm Justin’s fears. The veteran predator strode with pride and purpose, clearly unafraid.

Justin focused on his wives' presence as he strode along, loping as a wolf might, even if it was odd compared to his usual gait in so many subtle ways. "Then we should meet, and tell it you're going to take care of it and protect it." He smiled a little. "We like knowing we're being watched over, just as a stallion should her mares, even if, you know, my mares are both bigger and tougher than I am."

“You’re tougher now than you realize,” Alice said. “As long as you’re a wolf, your injuries will heal rapidly. As long as they aren’t caused by silver, or another wolf like me. Or possibly Amelia.. I’m not sure about her. Oh, and some kinds of magic can be bad… but most things? Still… pain still hurts, you know?”

“Do you think that applies to me as well?” Amelia asked, suddenly very obviously trotting right along beside them.

“Only one way to find out,” Alice pointed out.

“I’m, uh, fine not knowing for now,” Amelia said before getting lost among the trees again.

The trek was not all that far before they came to a small clearing, where a natural depression had made a pool of standing water, several yards across. It wasn’t deep enough to bathe in, but it was reflective enough to show the moon and stars above in all their glory.

Someone had taken the time to create two patches of smooth, even, soft grass leading up to the water’s edge, devoid of weeds, roots, stray sticks, or any other inconvenience. Alice stepped between the two before turning back to address her mates. There was a small sack there at her feet, woven from leaves somehow. “Alright, my loves. Take a seat here, where you can see your own reflection.”

For just a moment, he felt the urge to ask which would have his reflection, but the thought was swallowed and he moved up to settle on one of the spots. With wagging tail, he looked between her and the water with nervous anticipation.

Amelia took up the other spot, prancing about a bit to see herself from various angles. She gave a small sigh of disappointment when she got a view of her blank flank, but then finally settled down onto the grass, looking into her reflection’s slitted eyes, wavering with the motions of the water.

“Thank you, both,” Alice said, before reaching into her sack and drawing out what appeared to be a dandelion, carefully. “Now, Amelia… focus on the reflection before you. Look her straight in the eyes and think about what you have to say to her…” Green magic began to wrap up the stem and infuse the white spores before she drew in a breath and blew sharply, spreading the plant bits into Amelia’s face. The lunar pony sneezed once before sinking to the ground, snoring lightly. Alice took a moment to check her work, before drawing a second dandelion from her sack. “Your turn, my stallion. Ready?”

He raised a paw. "One thing. Don't look so sad, hon. You're still a new pony! You have to learn your special place before you get your mark, but you will, I'm sure of it." He grinned lopsidedly. "I wonder if it'll stay when you're a human. That'd be interesting…"

Alice glanced at Amelia, about to point out that she couldn’t hear him, but the sleeping mare smiled in her sleep, so maybe she had? At the very least it was probably going well so far. “Yours stayed when you became a wolf, so it probably will. But first things first…” She drew in a breath, wreathing the second dandelion with her magic and blew it in Justin’s face.

When Justin sneezed, the world shifted suddenly, disorienting him for a moment. The surface of the water was vertical now, like a mirror propped up for a pony to observe himself, and within stood the wolf, looking him over curiously. A stray glance showed Justin that he was a pony again, another showed the patch of grass he was on, and the mirrored copy the wolf stood on were the only ground visible, the rest of reality vanished into an undefined darkness.

Justin perked his restored ears. "Oh! Hello. So you're me, right?" He put a hoof to his chest. "You should appreciate a logical approach then. Ponies are going to expect a pony when they're talking to me, so I need to be in charge of things. That's not to say we won't have fun as a wolf and wag our tails around, but this is a pony village and a pony house, so I'm in charge, got it?" He took an upright stance as he talked, hoping against hope his spirited speech worked properly.

“I should be in charge,” the wolf countered, drawing himself up to try to look bigger. “I’m stronger, faster, and braver than you.” He raised his hackles and growled deeply, looking Justin in the eye, daring him to meet his gaze. “You can be my pet science pony for when there’s boring chemicals to mess with.”

Clop went the hoof as Justin stomped the blank ground before him. "We can't have a wolf running around Canterlot. We need a nice and friendly pony to not only guide, but protect our wives." He held out the same hoof. "I'd like your help, but I need to be in charge."

The wolf flinched, his eyes darting to the source of the sound, and the moment it did he was defeated. His hackles lowered, and he looked back at Justin, not quite meeting his eyes. “Fine, I’ll help you. Protect you,” the wolf said, before walking through the shimmering column of water, sniffing at Justin as he circled him. “But you can’t neglect me. You have fine wives… that’s good. And that snake was delicious… maybe this won’t be so bad.”

Justin smiled a little, quirked to the right. "We'll have fun, together. Have you seen them? They're good wives. We're both lucky to have them, and we'll do right by the both of them…. Do you know how to wake up from this?"

“I’ve only seen them sleeping before tonight, but I.. remember them. Through your eyes. Though even with my own eyes they’re both beautiful, especially now,” the wolf replied. Images of the two appeared on the wall of water, as though projected there. “I can’t wait to enjoy them… but first.. waking up, waking up.. you’ve been in a lot more dreams than I have, how do you wake up?”

As they discussed the subject, the air started to fill with individual dandelion spores, floating loosely through the air around them, but not close. Barely possible to reach from the small bit of ground afforded them.

Justin's eyes went up to the floating bits of plant stuff, and his alchemist nature came to the fore. "What plant did you come from?" He reached out a hoof, trying to reach one, only to fall from the dreaming world.

Author's Note

Surely that was too easy? Nothing bad can happen from it being too easy, right?

... than getting along with yourself.

“Hello?” Amelia asked tentatively, as she looked around. She had closed her eyes for only a moment when she sneezed, and now everypony.. everyone was gone. It took a moment to realize how tall she felt, like she had finally stood up after crouching for hours, and that revelation quickly drew her eyes down to her naked, but otherwise human, self.

In some ways, being alone made being naked less bad, but in other ways it made being naked worse. She sat down on her little patch of grass, hugging herself to keep things hidden from anyone who might stumble upon her as she looked around. The dark, moonlit woods seemed all the more daunting now, like they had been twisted into a nightmarish version of themselves.

“Hello?” Amelia called out again, louder this time, and a moment later she heard a nearly identical voice echoing back to her. She looked around for the source. Not seeing it immediately, she turned her head to check out other directions.

When she turned back, the brown, mottled pony face right before her uttered a simple but sudden “boo!” and she promptly fell into the water. It was much deeper than she had thought, at least six feet, judging by the lack of bottom as she tread water.

The pony closed her eyes, nearly falling over laughing, before a pair of pale white arms wrapped around her neck and dragged her down into the water as well. Amelia was not one to let a good prank go unpunished.

The underwater wrestling that ensued might have been dangerous in the real world, but fortunately it’s much harder to actually drown in a dream. It is, however, much easier for the world to warp around you, and as a set of finely clad hooves made themselves known with loud hoofsteps nearby, pony and human looked up in unison from the mudpuddle they were now wrestling in. As they noticed the princess of the night before them, both were a mottled muddy brown.

Luna raised an eyebrow as she looked down at them, keeping her confusion from her face as best she could. “And what manner of nightmare do we have here, hmm?” She didn’t make it particularly clear which of the wrestlers she was addressing, in large part because even her own senses were unclear which was the dreamer, and which merely dreamt. She did keep alert, ready to defend herself on a moment’s notice if one of them proved to be a dangerous creature of dreams, like her own Tantabus.

Amelia opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, the pony beside her began quickly. “This monster is trying to take over my body and take my place in the waking world!” the mare accused. “Help me! I want to be in control of my own body when I wake up!”

“Is that so? What do you have to say for yourself?” Luna asked, lifting Amelia telekinetically, and banishing all the dream mud, which made Amelia all that much more self-conscious.

Being naked and exposed before the princess kept Amelia from meeting her eyes, as she lamely pointed out “it was my body first. And I just came here to talk to you.” She did manage to meet the pony spirit’s gaze, making the mare flinch a bit from her own guilt. “You didn’t have to sneak up on me like that!”

“If you wish to talk, then talk, but I won’t allow a dream to take over its waking host,” Luna declared. The light of magic began to glow from her horn as she began to cast.

“Wait, what are you doing? You don’t understand!” Amelia pointed out, before a wall shimmered into view, separating Amelia from the two ponies.

“Now… what is your name, little pony? You look like one of mine, aside from the lack of wings,” Luna asked, turning her gaze to the lunar earth pony.

The pony spirit quickly cobbled something together, hoping she didn’t delay too long and draw suspicion. “Hidden… Treasure, yeah. Hidden Treasure. It’s so great to meet you, Luna! Thanks for saving me!”

Luna glanced at the wall, wondering whether she was on the wrong side of it. But regardless of the truth, she was confident it would keep the dream from entering the waking world. “Thy gratitude filleth my heart with gladness,” she exaggerated. “I have other dreams to patrol this night. If though wouldst converse with your dream…” she pointed a hoof to the wall, and a telephone appeared upon it, though one with no buttons to push. Moments later, it began to ring. “I wouldst not recommend ignoring it.”

Hidden Treasure looked at it for a few moments, before nodding to Luna. “I will, thank you Luna!” She waved until the princess opened a path for herself, leaving the dream behind. Once she was finally alone, she turned to look for a way to wake herself up, ignoring the ringing phone.

Justin awoke before Amelia, and Alice was waiting for him, with a fish on a bed of lettuce promptly offered up to him. “How did it go?” the wolf asked.

Justin bounded to his hooves, almost toppling over from his energetic bounce. "It was great! I think? My wolf seemed like a nice guy, though he was a wolf." He tapped at his chin. "I think we'll get along alright. He did agree with an important thing." A sly smile spread over his snout. "He thinks we have very fine mares."

“Good,” Alice confirmed as she gave him a nuzzle. “He submitted to you then? The next bit of your training is to learn how to hear his voice without dreaming. It’s usually not too hard once you’ve met in person. But that can wait… you may even master it on your own in a few days. We’ll take it slow for the rest… there’s no need to hurry.”

She glanced over her shoulder at the sleeping pony. “Amelia hasn’t awakened yet, but I’m not worried. Your encounter was unusually fast, and if she took our advice, she’s probably got a lot of talking to do to sort things out with her pony spirit.”

He tilted his head at his sleeping wife, filled with curiosity. "She's lucky in a way. She can be a pony and poof, she can fit right in. Being a wolf is a bit of a stand out position." He wagged his tail. "Not, uh, bad, mind you, but definitely different." He reached up to put a paw on Amelia's closest cheek. "I guess we're really tied, now."

Alice nodded and licked Justin’s cheek. “Until you learn how to control it, you’ll change back into a pony at dawn, and again into a wolf at sunset. So you’ll be able to fit in during the day at least. Just try not to lose track of time and be out in public when you have to change. It might be… alarming for your neighbors. They’ve been so accepting of me though… maybe it’s best to at least let them know?”

Amelia squirmed fitfully in her sleep, looking like she might be having a nightmare or something. Alice frowned at her, before setting a paw on her shoulder to try to comfort her. It didn’t work at first, but after a minute she calmed down. “She must be having a harder time with her spirit,” Alice noted with concern.

Justin moved to her side, joining in support of their shared wife. "She'll make it through. She's one of us, right?" He smiled. "We can do anything, together." He spoke with firm conviction, as if the family pulling through as one was just a natural order of things.

“She is and she isn’t… she’s not a wolf, and perhaps now she’ll never become one.” Alice’s ears drooped for a moment at the thought before she shook it off. “But she’s still our friend and your… our? wife… We’ll support her as best we can. And you’ll get to teach her all kinds of pony things.”

Before the discussion could go further, Amelia groaned a bit, struggling a moment to regain consciousness. She opened her eyes, blinking against the moonlight for a moment before leaping to her hooves with a triumphant laugh.

Justin clopped his forehooves. "See, what'd I tell you? How are you feeling?" He smiled brightly, elated with the recovery of Amelia. With his new ears perked at her, he leaned in to nuzzle gently. "Did you have a nice chat?"

“I feel great!” Amelia claimed, before a suppressed wave of nervousness caught Justin’s attention. “We had a great little chat. No problems! You know how friendly we ponies can be. I just know I’m going to love being a pony now.”

“You know, you’re probably going to change back at dawn too. Still, it’s good to hear you’re getting along so well with yourself,” Alice said, a subtle hint of skepticism in her voice.

“Oh? Right… Do you think you could teach me how to keep from changing back? I mean, the night is still young, right? I think it’d be a lot easier living here as a pony all the time,” Amelia returned. “You have no trouble keeping your form all the time, surely it’s not too hard for you to teach?”

Justin tilted his head, looking at Amelia with some concern. "I'm glad you're enjoying the hoofed life, but you're a human, and there's nothing wrong with that. You don't have to hide from yourself, especially not on my account." He smiled on his alien muzzle, wagging his upturned tail. "Don't feel pressured."

Amelia couldn’t help but let a hint of nervousness creep into her voice. “Well, uh, everything around here is proportioned for ponies anyways,” she excused. “Wouldn’t want to have to bend down all the time. Besides, I’m cuter like this, aren’t I?” She gave a toothy smile, though it withered a bit under Alice’s glare.

“You’re not a very good liar,” Alice pointed out. “Neither is Amy, but she talks faster when she’s trying to get away with something.” The wolf poked at the lunar pony’s ribs roughly with a paw. “What did you do with Amy, pony spirit!?” she demanded accusatorially.

Amelia fell over backwards in her attempt to back away from the wolf, looking to Justin pleadingly for help. “I didn’t!.. I wasn’t!.. I…” she fumbled, not managing to get a coherent excuse together.

Justin advanced on Amelia, nose quivering slightly. "Amelia, what's gotten into you? I mean, yes, you're very pretty as a pony, or a human, or whatever you happen to be." He tapped his cheek lightly with a paw, scratching through the fur. "We're a family, you know that. You weren't sad to be a human before, were you?"

“What? No, I… Justin, you know I love you, right? Can’t you just help me with this one little thing? Get Alice to help me with it.. please?” Amelia begged, her eyes growing wide as she gave her best cute begging looking.

Alice, meanwhile, had backed off a bit to start searching the surrounding grass. She seemed pleased when she plucked a fresh dandelion, carefully, but that just made Amelia that much more nervous when she spotted it.

Justin suddenly jumped forward, pouncing as the wolf he was and tackling his newly-ponied wife to the ground. "We both love you so much." He went in for a kiss. "Let us help you, please."

Amelia was too surprised to return the kiss at first, blushing deeply as she was kissed, before finally easing into returning it, and wrapping her hooves around her mate. Her eyes closed, leaving her unprepared and defenseless for what was to come.

A sharp blowing sound heralded the approach of a fresh wave of gently glowing dandelion spores, washing over Amelia and Justin as one. “I sure hope this works,” Alice said, with less confidence than either could recall hearing in her voice, before they drifted to sleep in one another’s limbs.

... than tearing down walls.

Justin was a pony again, which was probably the first clue to being back in the dream world. It was different this time, though. His wolf half was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the human woman, Amelia, sat a few yards away, sitting with her back against a wall that seemed to stretch on forever in all directions. She was sitting next to a telephone built into the wall, hugging her knees to her chest, her hair covering her face. She had been crying; it was obvious from the pool of tears that surrounded her, dream logic growing it to comical proportions. But she wasn’t crying now.

Justin took a step towards her, reassured by the soft clop he hadn't even noticed he missed. "Amelia? What's wrong?" Was that a dream? He tried to get up to speed even as he moved for his wife. "I'm here, promise!"

“Justin? What? How?” Amelia asked, wiping her face with an arm before looking around. Hope made it to her face, before she caught sight of the phone and it dimmed noticeably. “You’re not really here are you?... it’s okay, even some dream company is more than welcome right now,” she said as she reached out to stroke his mane.

Justin leaned up against her hand. "Well, uh, yes and no I think. I'm laying on top of you, and we're kissing." He perked his ears up. "But I'm also in here, talking to you. My life got a lot more interesting with my wives, but--" He moved in to bump noses. "I wouldn't trade them for anything."

“Kissing?” she asked, blushing a moment before the blush turned to anger, her grip on his mane turning painfully tight before she realized it and loosened up. “That wasn’t me. Well, not me-me… My pony spirit ambushed me when I got in here. And when we were fighting, Luna stepped in and broke it up, and put up this wall. And then… I couldn’t wake up. I guess she was able to… and tried to steal my man.”

Justin tilted his head. "That was…" He looked to the side slowly, turning to face the wall. "She was hoping you could just stay a pony, but we saw through that. You're not sad being a human, are you?" He twitched an ear at her. "You two need to finish your argument properly."

Amelia pointed at the phone. “Luna put that in there, so we could talk, but she won’t answer. She tried to just leave me here… I’m guessing when dawn comes I would wake up and she’d be the one trapped in here all alone.” She looked at Justin a moment thoughtfully. “I was kind of liking being a pony, but I am human. Somewhere, deep down, Alice is too, even if she doesn’t want to admit it. But she was a wolf too, since she was born, and her parents were as well. I’m new to, uh… being two things, but I can at least appreciate both for what they are. Or at least, I’d like to,” she said, looking up at the phone again sadly.

He leaned up to rub his nose to hers. "You're adorable in either shape." He dropped down and clopped on the wall softly. "Hello? Are you ready to talk this out? You're both lovely mares, and I want you two getting along now. No more tricks."

The phone began ringing after a bit, and Amelia was quick to pick it up, angling it from her ear a bit so Justin could hear. “Hello?” she asked.

“I am ready to talk now,” the pony spirit said. Her voice sounded weird, like her face was being squished or something. She made a bit of a pained noise before adding “I would like to start by offering my most sincere apology.” Though, beyond sounding squished, she also didn’t sound especially sincere.

Justin smiled a little. "Hello there." He reached a hoof towards the phone but didn't try to take it. "We're all family, even you. Wouldn't it be nice to be a part of that? You've done a very naughty thing, but it's done. We caught you, but we can move past that, right?"

“H-hi, Justin. Can you ask your wolf spirit to stop squishing my face against the wall?” the voice came back over the receiver. “It’s making it very hard to speak.”

Justin flashed a bright smile. "He just wants us to get along, just like I do. Now you have to be nice, for real." He leaned towards the phone. "I'll be sure to play with you too, you know that right? Amelia has to be the one in charge though. I agreed to marry her, not you."

There was silence for a few moments before the pony spirit continued. “I’m not sure if I could even if I wanted to. This wall that Luna put up… I don’t think we can just knock it down. We’ll have to ask her about it,” she said, before sighing. “Look, I’m sorry I made a mess of everything. I just wanted to be… free, you know?”

“I know… I’m not your enemy,” Amelia said. “I’m your… well… your self. We’ve got to work together or we’ll just go crazy. Truce, pony-Amy?”

“The name’s Hidden Treasure,” the pony replied. “And yes. Truce.”

Justin tilted his head. He quietly decided he liked that name, then turned to the wall. "Maybe two ponies weren't enough to bring it down, but four? Let's give it a try together." He spun around, lining up his back hooves with the wall. "On the count of three?"

“Wouldn’t we just end up…?” Amelia said, her brain insisting that the physics of it wasn’t going to work right, before she shook her head. “Screw it. It’s a dream! Hulk, smash!” She balled up her fists and pulled back, waiting for Justin’s count.

An affirmative bark made it through the now dangling phone receiver, along with a mumbled “why not?” Justin counted down, and on his cue fists, hooves, and paws slammed into the barrier. It wobbled and shook like jello when struck, before cracks started to appear in it, and it started to fall apart, the pieces disappearing entirely as they hit ground.

Wolf and pony looked through the gap that was made, blinking at their other selves. The wolf moved first, tackling Justin and licking his face while talking quite rapidly about how great he was. Hidden Treasure, however, turned away, unable to meet Amelia’s gaze. As a result, she didn’t see the human coming until she had been dragged into a firm hug.

Justin hugged his other half, new as he was. "You smacked that down good. See what cooperation can do?" He turned an ear towards his wife, or was that wives? "Let's let them have a moment." He sat up with his newest friend. "They have a few things to work out."

The wolf spirit nodded. “Like, if the human one is your wife, does that make the pony my wife? I’m so confused,” he questioned. “Anyways… maybe we can sort all that after we wake up.” The very mention of waking up was enough to summon the dandelion spores back into view, floating like an airborne minefield all about them.

Pony and human looked over at Justin and his wolf spirit, whispering conspiratorially between them. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” the human asked. “Yes, but I’m fairly certain they’re not thinking anything even remotely like that,” the pony answered.

Justin's eyes followed one of the bits of dander in the air, though his ears were trained on his wives. "They're both our wives, just like you're, um, me." He hoped he got that right, but had nothing to prove it. "Are you two feeling, uh, better?"

“Much better,” Amelia answered. “But I do think we should stay asleep a bit longer. We do have some things to work out before we go. Thanks for rescuing me from, uh, myself. And Luna’s meddling.”

“Nah,” Hidden Treasure disagreed. “We’ll sort it out as we go. Pop!” She said the last bit aloud even as she tapped a dandelion spore with a hoof, causing the whole dream to vanish instantly.

“Haha! Awake again!” Hidden Treasure declared triumphantly, pulling herself up from Justin’s embrace. She turned and backed away from Alice a bit, raising a hoof in defense. “It’s okay, Alice. Amy and I are cool now.”

Justin slid back, confused a moment with being a canine again, but quickly composing himself. "Hidden! Why'd you do that?" He shook himself out, the subtle differences in musculature making him wobble but also amaze at it all. "I thought we had a deal."

The lunar pony shook her head, rubbing it with a hoof for a moment and blinking in momentary confusion before looking at the others. “Justin, Alice… it’s okay, really.” Her tone was much more reminiscent of Amelia than Hidden Treasure, though it was hard to be sure. “We’re… still coming to terms, a bit, but we don’t have to sleep to do that. I can hear her just fine like this, now. Getting her to shut up, on the other hand… Ow!” The mare winced, as if struck, but shook it off.

“Amy? Is that really you? Say something only you would know, so we can be sure,” Alice challenged.

“The largest flowers on Earth belong to Rafflesia arnoldi, a parasitic plant that lives on the roots of other plants,” Amelia recited. She opened her mouth to say more, but Alice shook her head.

“Okay, it’s really you,” the wolfess confirmed. “What happened in there? Justin? Were you able to get into her dream? I never… actually tried that trick before.”

Justin was no expert on dream mechanics and lifted his shoulders. "It worked fine, and we took care of things." He puffed out his chest a little. "I protected my mare," he stated with blooming confidence and satisfaction.

“That you did,” Amelia said, and leaned in to nuzzle her stallion. “And you should be rewarded for your bravery,~” she added in a more sultry tone.

Alice nodded, ignoring the innuendo for the moment. “You did great, Justin. I’m just glad to have my best friend back.” She glanced around a moment. “Maybe we should head back to the house? The woods are nice and all, but I feel like you two should have a bit more time to get your paws under you before I start teaching you out here.”

Justin glanced around in the darkness even as his fur rose from the closeness of Amelia. Both females had his interest. "We should head home. We've had nothing if not a full night today." He smiled, tongue wagging a little. "I'm not ugly as a wolf, am I?"

Amelia decided to answer by pouncing him, and wrestling him to the ground, where she kissed him passionately, squirming her hips atop his belly.

“You’re quite a handsome wolf, in my opinion,” Alice began before noticing the scuffle and sighing. “Can you really not wait until we get home for that?” She glanced about, making sure they at least had their privacy for the moment.

The urge to accept the invitation, nay, demand that his partner was extending was overwhelming, but he turned it around, and turned her around with a sudden twist, seeking out her throat with new instinct. He held her firmly even as his tongue rasped at her. "Let's go home."

“Eep,” Amelia began before the shock faded a bit. “Sir, yes, sir!” she conceded, even as she licked her lips lustfully. With Amelia brought to heel, for the moment, they were able to make the trek fairly quickly and uneventfully. Though it was still a bit unnerving the way she faded from perception as they traveled, only to occasionally reappear as she rubbed her side up against one or the other of her herdmates.

... than being with your wife. (Clop)

Amelia snapped back into her herdmates’ perception by opening their front door, but she didn’t stick around. By the time the wolves were inside their home, she was in bed, making an awkward attempt at a seductive pose.

Justin tilted his head a little. He should have been tired, but his exploits had done much to rouse him, and the wolf inside knew an attempt to stir him when he saw it. He licked along his new lips as he glanced around with just a little trepidation. "Feeling… um…" Smooth. He set the words aside and just trotted up to her.

Amelia leaned forward and kissed him briefly, before pulling him onto the bed with her. “Me too,” she guessed, hoping he hadn’t planned on ending that sentence with something like ‘too tired,’ or something. Eager hooves wrapped around his back, stroking him awkwardly, while she blushed a bit, but didn’t break her gaze.

Alice paused in the doorway to their bedroom, uncertain what to do with herself. She wasn’t quite comfortable joining in, certainly didn’t want to break them up, and it didn’t feel quite right to just walk away.

Even as he was held, a little part of him wondered how odd trotting was as a wolf. If just wasn't… Oh did she touch there? He shuddered softly as a hoof wandered over a sensitive spot. He leaned forward, bumping noses before he tilted his head to the left, making it easier for their snouts to meet in a gentle kiss. "Which lovely wife am I kissing right now?"

“Hidden Treasure,” she admitted reluctantly, “but Amy’s here with me too, and believe me, she’s every bit as eager. It’s just… easier when our body’s like this… I won’t shut her out, I promise! I’ll be a good pony!” Her hooves wandered up and down his sides, seeking out all the good spots before returning to the ones she’d found.

Justin was a cooperative instrument, and began to make a little song of encouraging growls and aborted barks. That she was having an effect on him was beyond a doubt. "Is it because she's not used to two legs?" He inclined his ears forward, subtly different as they were. "Enough questions." He circled around her with a sudden urge for dominance. His nose found her tail, sniffing around it. "I have a wife to satisfy."

The mare giggled, playfully pulling her tail up to cover herself, just long enough to tease before bapping him lightly in the snout with it on the way out of his way. “Kind of… the night is mine, the day is hers, but we’re both always going to be here. Might mean she’ll be a bit extra interested in… ‘afternoon delight’ is her term. Not that I’d object,~” she said.

Justin tilted his head. "It's like I have three now." His voice a mixture of amazement and a little terror. He wriggled his bapped nose even as he hopped right on top of her and slid into position, his heavy excitement ready for the task ahead of it. "Now… enough talk." The words were repeated, but the meaning more insistent. The time for words was past and he gave a hungry growl, but no food would satisfy him. With a smooth motion, he became one with the wild creature beneath him.

Hidden Treasure added her voice to his own, letting him get started before beginning to add her own eager motions to his. Obedient to his words, she kept her verbal encouragements to wordless sounds, but their meaning was still easily understood; delight combined with a burning need for more.

His new paws wrapped around her, embracing her even as he moved against her. Sharp teeth found her throat, gripping and pulling her back in time with his rocking motions as he found an easy fluid motion to match with her own. His tail was high, wagging a little with the excited moment of union. Nothing seemed as important as that moment, of proclaiming his love and completing their herd through the act they were locked in.

Alice stood still in the doorway, torn still by indecision until she had seen enough that her self control began to break down. Settling into her spot, a paw snaked down beneath her, working to grant her some relief of the tension forming from witnessing the act before her. It wasn’t working all that well, inexperienced as she was with such things, but a hushed moan escaped her lips nonetheless.

Hidden gasped out loudly at the feel of that bite, one hoof slipping behind his neck to hold him in place and show her approval, while her hind hooves wrapped around his back, pulling him into her harder. Her eyes closed so she could focus more on the sensations, as her voice rose with every thrust until she cried out uncontrollably, her body wracked with the pleasure as it tried to milk his canine cock for everything it could provide.

The animal within him was screaming to release, to finish the act and tie with her. His alien member was swollen near the base, making each push a little harder the wider it got. With a low grunt, he forced it into her needy sex one last time, locking them together, but not freezing him entirely. He rocked in spastic little motions, thrusting all he could in the small space left to him and holding back the dam even as it began to splinter and strain under the pressure. The flood was coming, and there was little he could do for long.

Hidden began to squirm, the movements dragging out her orgasm to the point it was becoming overwhelming. “Fuck!” she managed to say, more times than anyone bothered to count, and her limbs clamped around him painfully tightly.

Alice bit her lip, whining a bit with a hint of jealousy at the mare receiving what she rather desperately wanted at that moment. But despite the stickiness of her paw, she was quite unable to give herself the relief she wanted.

His will only carried so far, and he released her only to bring his head back and howl, likely spooking a few ponies nearby as he gave of himself in shuddering twitches, filling his newest mare, who shared physical space with another. His grip tightened, holding her close, as if to say nothing could take her away from him.

Hidden collapsed back against the bed, half in a daze. “Ah yes… the knot… really is quite good,” she muttered, half to herself.

Alice finally fully entered the room, climbing onto the bed and snuggling against Justin’s side, rubbing herself against him. “You were… impressive to watch,” she struggled to say, blushing fiercely at the implicit admission.

Justin's ears did a little dance, perking up, only to roll back as he became more aware of his surroundings and to the fact that he was just watched while doing all… that. "Oh, uh… was I?" A little nervous laugh escaped him, mixing with the sound of a little bark. He tried to dismount, only to discover for the first time that snuggle time is not optional for canines. "Uh… I guess we're sleeping together tonight?"

Alice nodded, snuggling in to await her turn, while Hidden merely gave a contented sigh.

... than answering the invitation.

The next few days were pretty peaceful and lucrative overall. Amelia’s fizzy drinks and Alice’s mediation services helped them gather enough funds for their trip to the capital during the days. And Alice kept things pretty light and playful at night as she began to train the others to be more comfortable with their other selves. So it was still a few nights before the full moon when they packed what they needed to head to Canterlot, and finally visit the princesses.

“I’m still trying to decide if I want to fangirl on Luna, or kick her ass for that wall nonsense,” Amelia said as she stretched, waiting for Justin to lock their door. Her backpack was stuffed with clothes once again, after having just gotten everything properly settled into the dresser.

Justin stuck out his tongue. "Now's not the time for considering trying to enact violence on royalty." He shook a little left and right, making sure his saddlebags were secure. "Besides, I'm certain she meant the best, and we did get past it, did we not?"

“True… fangirl it is then,” she said. “Though I might just get Hidden Treasure to pull off a prank or two with her stealth before I call it even.”

“We are going to see someone who controls the power of the moon… you should be respectful,” Alice countered with a frown. “She plays an even more important role in our lives now than others.” The reverence in her voice was quite obvious.

“Sounds like you have the fangirl side covered,” Amelia giggled.

Justin snorted softly. "It's not a 'fangirl' thing to say the truth." He sat on his haunches and raised a hoof at his house. "I'll be back quicker this time, promise." His departure stated, he moved to take the lead, guiding his new family towards the train station with an energetic trot. "I've never seen them besides a big public spectacle, and you don't get to really… see them then."

“Are you nervous?” Alice inquired as they walked. “They invited us, and it sounded like a friendly invitation. Everyone… everypony has been so friendly since we’ve gotten here. It’s kind of a bit unsettlingly alien to me, but I think I could get used to it.”

He glanced aside at Alice. "Surely you have big important leaders where you come from? Have you met and talked with them like anypony else? You just don't do that!"

Alice thought about that and shivered with fear. “Okay, now you have me nervous,” she admitted.

“Wolf-stuff aside, even for an average citizen, talking to the President isn’t something we generally got the chance to do,” Amelia agreed. “The Secret Service would quickly put a stop to you, if you weren’t invited. But from the show, the Princesses always seemed a bit more inviting than that. And we were invited after all. It’ll be fine. Fun, even.”

Justin lifted an ear. "Oh, she's great! I mean, she's in charge, but she's a good pony. Everything I ever heard about her was nice." He trotted towards the train station pointedly, tail swaying with each step. "And you're right, she did ask for us to be there, so, uh, deep breaths? We'll be alright."

With a round of deep breaths, the herd braced themselves for the journey ahead, and the approaching meeting with the Princesses. The prospect kept a layer of tension over their trip, despite everything else going smoothly. A few bits easily became train tickets, and those tickets easily provided comfortable seats to watch the miles, and the time, separating them from their meeting slowly melt away.

Author's Note

The End.

Will there be a sequel? There's certainly room for one. No promises for now, but feel free to imagine one in the meantime. :)

... than getting your ingredients.

The great thing about being an alchemist is that you don’t need a horn to do it. You just need a keen mind for science, some patience for experimentation, and of course, the right ingredients.

Of course, it’s that last bit that always causes all the trouble, especially when your usual suppliers decide they don't want to go traipsing into the Ghost Haunt Woods after your herbs anymore. It’s not like they are accurately named or anything!

Justin Thyme trotted down the path slowly, slow enough to almost be a walk. He wanted to be quick about it, but the woods always made him a little nervous, even if he argued against it out loud. "There's nothing that bad about these woods. I mean, they're not the Everfree…"

Indeed, there were not monsters attacking, or even as much as bandits. There was, however an odd noise coming from a cave a few dozen hoof lengths from the path. They sounded inexplicable, perhaps even ghostly. But there was surely a logical explanation, like the wind through an oddly shaped hole or something. Surely. All it would take is a small amount of looking about in a dark cave... it might even have some useable fungi for his experiments!

Justin licked over his snout as he peered towards the cave. "There's nothing to be worried about." He threw up his nose in defiance and approached that ominous opening before his head fell and he began to creep despite his brave words. "If there's anyone scary hiding in here, you better watch out! I'm ready!"

The weird noises responded. His imagination insisted it sounded kind of like it said "oh no!" in a very long drawn out moan. With his ears flickering, he pushed past his fear. It was his mind playing tricks on him, or was that somepony that needed help? Either way, he advanced into the darkness, squinting for sight.

It got quiet as he made his way deeper, as though the noises were hiding from him. As he got deep enough that the natural light was all but gone from sight, and his vision was adjusted to the darkness, his eyes noticed the cave ahead slightly brightening again, the shadows showing the new light source was behind him somehow. Before he could turn, a new sound pierced the air, sounding decidedly like a girlish squeal of delight.

He yelped with all the bravery that he didn't feel and span around towards the source, his eyes contracted to little dots in the sudden bright light. He couldn't see what made the noise, blinded by the very same light that would allow it. "W-who is that?! I'm an alchemist, don't think I'm entirely defenseless!"

The light itself seemed shaped like a young, hornless minotaur or the like. Perhaps even a human? Whatever it was, it reached out to envelope him in... a hug? It made his nerves freak out where it touched his fur, not seeming to apply any real pressure. Quite the opposite, in fact. He felt something like a vacuum engulf him entirely, robbing him of breath!

Justin tried to draw a breath quickly as he entered the second stage of panic. His rear-left hoof reached up and clumsily toyed with his supplies, doing little but knocking a bottle of antacids to the floor to shatter in a display of tactical genius.

His mind was flooded with the memory of smoke, for some reason, his analytical mind desperately insisting he never smelled this particular variety of smoke before, but it cleared away as the stars started to shine down on him. Which was very wrong in and of itself. The cave was gone, replaced with burned wood outline an unreasonably tall house's charred remains. The fireplace stands, blackened but unharmed, something bright and orange catching the eye within.

Justin spun around in a wild examination of his surroundings. He wasn't dead, or suffocating. These were good things, very good, yes… He took a slow breath and nodded. "You're letting yourself go. Jumping at nothing!" Oh but something was glowing? He had to know and proceeded towards it despite his near death experience. "A new plant?"

The orange object stopped glowing as he approached, the supernatural light fading away. But it was still easy enough to find. Aside from the soot on it, it was a small figure of an earth pony, orange of fur and mane, with three red apples depicted on each flank. The material was some odd, hard substance other than the mane, which was some kind of thin strings. The craftsponyship was impressive.

Little else appeared to have survived whatever fire had claimed this place, along with its surroundings.

Justin carefully lifted up the little figure of a fellow earth pony. Why did it seem faintly familiar? It wouldn't do for alchemy at all, however. He smiled at the cute thing and tucked it away into his bags carefully before starting to sniff around. The day hadn't been fully spent yet! "Maybe there's some mandrake root around…"

The stars above disagreed with Justin’s assessment, proving how wrong they were. It was nearly noon, it was entirely unseemly for all these stars to shine down on him at a time like this! At least they were plentiful enough to cast the area in a dim luminescence that let him see… well. Going beyond the remnants of the structure, he could see several more such burned out husks in the distance in most directions. To his left, the hilltop glowed a flickering orange, tracing a lighted outline in the otherwise dark night, fresh smoke making its way upward from beyond the far side. To his right, in the distance he could make out a distant treeline that appeared to still have foliage, suggesting it had somehow been spared the flame.

The foliage called to him, but that glow… "Another little pony?" Curiosity won out over practicality and he took off at a hasty trot. His mind wandered back to the vision of the female and her smothering hug, but he hadn't been hurt. "Is this… a gift?"

It was a bit of a trek, but Justin didn’t have anywhere else to be urgently. The air grew less pleasant, the closer he got, though not enough to choke him out, or his curiosity. Topping the small hill, he got a great view of… miles and miles of roaring flames. They were still distant, thankfully, down the slope ahead, which they had already consumed. From here he could see flashing lights in places on the far side of the flickering flames, and make out distant shouts. Somepony was in front of the flames! Many someponies, by the sound of it.

Justin broke into a full gallop even as he fished out a precious vial. Fires were something he was unfortunately familiar with, having faced more than his share of, uh, unfortunate consequences of ingenuity, yes, he stuck by that. With the flask of flame retardant powder in his teeth, he raced to reach the ponies before they became crisped. "I'm coming! Keep shouting!"

The shouting continued, though it seemed to be backing up as he approached, staying ahead of the flames. As he got close enough to hear them through the wall of flames that now towered over him, he felt steam wash over him rather than only smoke, and could make out that the shouts seemed to be orders and reports, coordinating between the ponies beyond as they tried to beat back the flames. But where were their weather pegasi? Some rain would clear this right up!

A shout of alarm rose up from his right after a surprisingly strong gust of wind from that direction. This seemed to be creating new activity from the shouters, but much of it included words not fit for polite society. Were they sailors?

Justin pushed through the steam and smoke. "Take this! Pour it on the source!" Wait a moment… "Is anypony trapped?" Would that he could fly and get a better view of what was going on, but he shouldered forward with all the stubbornness his tribe was known for. "I'm here to help!" He shook lightly as some of the things he carried heated up in the journey, but he hadn't gone close enough to the live flames to cook yet.

Somepony managed a somewhat surprised sounding “yes” before a fit of coughing overwhelmed his ability to speak. Water had been spraying in his vacinity, but that was suddenly replaced with a wild deluge of water splattering all over the flames and sizzling off, too poorly concentrated to deal with this inferno. It seemed like at this point he might be closer to this side of the wall of fire than where the others were still making a fighting retreat.

Justin Thyme felt like he was put there just for that moment, and bull rushed the inferno with a mighty cry born of one who spends most of their days cooking exotic ingredients. He tossed his head and scattered the flame fighting powder in an arc, fighting to make a path to escape through and reach the poor pony that he assumed was trapped inside.

His dramatic rescue proved complicated when he arrived to find his would be rescuee unconscious in a circle of damp grass amidst the flames. The water had worked to buy a bit of time, but hadn’t saved him from smoke inhalation. Also, his rescuee was not a pony. He looked to be a biped, about six hooves tall, and covered in clothing made of material resembling the little pony miniature, only yellow in color. All of it flexible like cloth except the hat. But pony or no, this person was clearly still in desperate need of rescue!

Who was that? What was that?! There was no time to wonder either of those things. With his flame retardant powder making a narrow walkway, Justin rushed through and snatched up the fallen soul, clenching at their clothes in his teeth as he ran right back out again and into the foggy smoke. "You're OK!" Was Justin OK? No time to check that!

Once they were clear of the flames, Justin had a moment to appreciate how well those odd clothes did at repelling the flames on the sides of the path where he had to unfortunately be dragged through them. Nice! And then Justin noticed that his own fur was regrettably poorer at repelling flames, and had actually caught a bit of the stuff.

Justin set his rescue target down with a smile before he noticed he was actually on fire and squawked. Falling to the ground and rolling in the dirt like any trained pig, he worked to put himself out as soon as he could. "Next purchase, fireproof coat."

His rescuee thanked him by coughing heavily, proving he was still alive. Yay! Unconscious, but alive. Something Justin could certain claim some credit for. There seemed to be nopony present and conscious to claim that credit from, at the moment, as the flames and shouts were moving farther away.

Justin rolled up to his haunches and slid up closer to the injured… whatever it was. "You're in good hooves." He reached out and began feeling over the, uh, thing, looking for the usual signs that he was breathing well like a pony would be, and that he'd be alright. He was no doctor, but the basics he knew.

He was coughing from time to time, and the area was heavy with smoke… cleaner air would certainly do them both good, but otherwise he showed no signs of immediate danger. At least nothing an alchemist could easily discern, even given his years of experience with fire. Determining this, Justin hefted up the limp form onto his back and began forging his way through the smoke that stung at his eyes, slowly and carefully moving for where the fire had already torn through things.

Once he had gotten back over the hill, the air was nice and fresh-ish. Certainly a dramatic improvement! The distant treeline looked like it might be even better, but the pony needed to catch his breath himself after that exertion. Time seemed to fly by as he enjoyed some good old fashioned breathing, until the rescuee mixed up his routine of coughing and regular breathing with a deep, dramatic gasp and sat up!

Justin looked up from where he lay, ears perking at the sudden movement. "Are you alright?" What are you? He wondered it, but saved that question for later. "You're safe."

After a couple more coughs, he answered “yeah, I’m fine. Still alive, anyways. Pretty thir-” At this point he had turned his head enough to see who was talking. “Nevermind. I’m hallucinating. Can you just call me an ambulance?”

... than not being alone.

While she was gone, he restocked his stockpile, but he had some… new plants. What did they do? Well, only one way to be certain. With a bit of a manic grin, he tossed some together, grinding them up cheerfully. Without his even knowing, his internal magic seeped through his hooves, awakening the potential of the new plants.

He had plenty of time to work while the wolf was away, but in the meantime curious squirrels started to approach him from all around, sniffing and looking at him without getting too close. There was about a dozen that closed close enough to see, though he could hear the occasional chatter from others farther away.

Alas, he didn't have any talent for chatting with squirrels, but their presence poked through his haze of alchemical excitement. He perked an ear at them and glanced up towards them, even as he tried to focus.

One of the squirrels with a more faded grey coat approached closer, making curious noises at him as it sniffed at his bowl of ground up plant matter.

Justin gently made a shooing motion. "I don't know what that'll do, little guy. I'd feel really bad if you exploded." Not outside the realm of possibilities. If he exploded, he'd only have himself to blame.

The fearless squirrel refused to be shooed, but at least it didn’t sample the wares. Justin was able to get back to work, at least, and make a fair bit more progress before Alice returned. She had a rather smooth and shiny looking wooden bowl gripped in her teeth, which she set before him, revealing a veritable bouquet of flowers atop some assorted leaves. Strangely, the squirrels didn’t seem alarmed by the predator’s presence, some of them even closing in closer to her.

“Here,” she said, looking away a bit in embarrassment. “You’ll have to tell me which ones are actually good… I don’t know what flowers you would think are tasty, so I just picked ones that smelled good.”

Justin sniffed his creation before he stood up. "Thanks, it looks fantastic! Are these your friends? They kept me company while you were away." He reached for the bowl and pulled it into himself, resting between his hind legs as he buried his snout into it and started sampling the flowers, Mmm…

“Yeah… friends might be an odd term for it. Coco here is almost ripe, aren’t you girl?” Alice pet the fearless squirrel gently. “They haven’t been getting in your way, have they?”

Ripe? Almost r… He released the petals in his snout. "They're your food?"

Alice nodded. “Only once they’ve had a nice, long life. Coco here turned five a few weeks back, but she’s nursing still, so I have to wait until she weans. I told you I don’t eat ponies… but I am still a wolf. Does that… bother you?”

Yes! "No… I guess you have to." He rubbed behind his head, looking awkward a moment before he took a slow breath and forced a smile. "Thank you, it's all lovely."

Alice flattened her ears, looking a bit rebuked by his body language. “I’m glad you like it.” She sat down and played with Coco a bit to distract herself, the squirrel fearlessly climbing all over her, soon joined by a few others.

Justin sat up on his hind legs and offered one of his fore towards her. "I mean it. I'm sorry. They obviously love you, and you take care of them. It's not up to me to start making a fuss about it. Just no nibbling on me and we're cool."

“Of course I wouldn’t-” Alice thought a moment, then shook her head. “Thanks for being understanding, Justin. I mean… a lot of humans have a hard time with that kind of thing, and they eat meat too. Just, most of them don’t even know anyone who raises farm animals. They just buy the meat at the store or restaurant and try not to think about it.”

Justin pointed at his bowl. "I suppose it would be different if I never saw a flower growing before. that would be odd." He pulled over his alchemical creation and rocked it to and fro a moment before he grabbed a flower in his maw, dipped it in and took a little taste. What was the worst that could happen?

The mixture seems to taste like vanilla. Very strongly. And the taste doesn’t seem to want to leave his tongue, not fading in the slightest. Rather, it’s started filling his nostrils, blanking out other smells, and drawing looks from both Alice and the squirrels.

Justin sneezed softly and rubbed at his nose as he inhaled more and more vanilla. How did it not fade with saturation? He sat back, confused and intrigued all at once. "Does my nose look funny?" he asked, eyes going cross to try to see the end of his snout.

“No, but you smell funny,” Alice said, as she padded closer, trying to see what was the matter. “Is that stuff stuck on your tongue?”

Justin flushed. "Oh my." So he smelled of vanilla. "I hope it's not offensive. It should go away on its own, I hope." He put the goop down. "I'll clean that out later. I don't need to smell like that."

“Here, stick out your tongue,” Alice requested. “I’ll help you out.”

Obediently, he stuck out her broad horse tongue for Alice with a soft ahhh.

Blushing, Alice leaned in and licked as much of the substance as she could off his tongue, ultimately distributing it evenly between them. That made it a lot more tolerable of a smell, though it was still quite potent.

At the end of the licking, Justin was blushing furiously. He nodded gently at her as he squirmed. "You are the nicest wolf I ever met." The only wolf he ever met, but same thing. "Thank you…" He wriggled his nose at her and smiled. "It's not bad now."

She blushed at the compliment. “Thanks. I’m glad I could help. You’re the… smartest pony I’ve ever met.” An equally true compliment, though she had at least met some other ponies… and they weren’t entirely dumb. Wordless, sure, but smarter than most animals.

Justin reached and pat her on the shoulder despite the odd look he got in return. "I'm glad we met. You're a good pony, er, wolf." He slid up to his hooves and shaked himself out, tail starting to wag as his mood lifted. "And I got a new recipe, though I don't know what this one would be good for."

“I can think of some uses… like making you super easy to find, for example. Though most predators wouldn’t think to track such a scent,” she suggested with a wag of her own. “Anyways… would you care to retire to my den?” A paw gestured in the direction of the previously located cave.

Justin gave a little nod, even as he wondered how well the two of them would fit in there. Then a thought came to him. She was being very kind, and feeding him, and even licking him? Were these just dog ways of saying hello, or was she more than casually interested? What would he even do if she was?! Do wolves do things the same way? A thousand questions played across his face even as he rose up and moved to the cave, trying to act brave and ready.

Alice led the way, needing to be conscious of the need to make a bit of noise and such, especially in the dark parts, so Justin wouldn’t get lost. But soon they were there. She had even taken a moment to dispose of the animal bones when she was making his salad earlier. And he could also make out the little hole where she had dug up the bowl from, nearby. Glancing at him, and then at her little indentation, she paused, trying to sort out how best to work this.

He moved up and flopped right onto the floor, acting like there was nothing out of place. He held out a hoof to her and smiled, playing the smoothest he could, even if anxiousness nibbled at him and he hoped he didn't make her angry.

She slipped up next to him, her legs joining his hooves in the indentation, as she lay down face to face with him, her body a bit outside the groove. “I’ve never really had a guest here before…”

Justin's heart skipped a beat. She'd accepted. They were gazing into one another's eyes. This was so wrong, and yet… He leaned in and gently licked her nose. "I'll try to be a good one."

“I’m sure you will be,” she said, gazing into his eyes as she froze a bit, entirely unsure what to do next. Were pony females supposed to make the first move? Who even knew?

Justin glanced away before he leaned in and touched nose-to-nose. He reached a hoof and gently held the exotic carnivore. She could devour him, but she seemed kind. She was so frightening, but that made it more…

A few beats passed between them with Alice holding her breath before she finally leaned in a bit more and tried to kiss him. Oh Gaia, was she really doing this? Why not, all things considered. It’s not like she would get even more outcasted somehow.

The little lick across his snout made his breath catch before he opened it and licked back at her. Confidence building with each touch, he leaned in and began nuzzling into her chest, sniffing gently at the vanilla that swamped the cave.

Alice gasped lightly, leaning back a bit to let him explore. “I’m not stealing you away from someone back home, am I?" she asked, while stroking his mane with a paw.

The pony tilted his head. "What? No. I mean, I'm not a virgin… I've had a few friends like that, but we never became marefriend and coltfriend, except that one time, I was actually a colt. We were just young and stupid." He nuzzled her gently. "Now I'm older and stupid."

Alice nodded. “You’re not that stupid, Justin. Sorry you never... not that I..." She faltered, settling for nuzzling instead of words.

With contact came boldness. She seemed to at least tolerate him, perhaps more. He nuzzled up under her chin as he pressed close, belly-to-belly. "Am I stealing you away?"

“No! No... I had a man, once, briefly... but he's long gone... I was... I was young and stupid, then," Alice said, echoing his statement. She wrapped her legs around him, hugging him close. She closed her eyes, pushing several thoughts out of her mind. She was determined to enjoy this now, regardless of whether she could keep him later.

"A human?" Curiosity laced his words, not disgust or jealousy. He put his head beside hers, his chin on her shoulder, as close as he could be, intimate and trusting. She could do horrible things to him, but he trusted her not to, just as she showed faith in him.

“Yeah... he never knew I wasn't. My family didn't approve... and I never saw either again, once it was all said and done," Alice said, her voice devoid of emotion as she said it. The walls were quite thick there. She snuggled in tight, enjoying the intimacy, in no rush for more.

He was a male, for better or worse, and his body gave off not-so-subtle hints that he could be talked into going much further. His mind wasn't as eager to force anything, and he snuggled against her, rubbing against her, hard and soft parts combined. "Their loss by far."

If she could smell anything other than vanilla, she'd be a lot more aggressive about it herself. Still, it was hard to miss that hard shaft poking against her belly. “I’m glad you're not running away. I'm glad you didn't run away. I don’t think we'd be able to do this if you had..." She dragged him into a deeper kiss, wondering at the feel of it.

His answer was muffled into a soft mmm of pleasure as he tilted his head, deepening the exchange with the bitch as a hoof gently trailed down her back. He hadn't dreamed of becoming that intimate with a predator, let alone one he just met, but everything in him screamed it was working.

Alice rubbed her belly firmly against his trapped stallionhood in response, making pleased noises into his mouth as their kiss continued uninterrupted. When she finally broke it off, she breathlessly asked "Do you want to?" Not quite sure what to ask specifically.

He twitched his ears with sudden thoughtfulness. Having broken through the first barrier, he had been riding the wave where it carried him. Having it put to a question… He smiled gently and nuzzled along her snout. "We shouldn't, unless we mean it." His hooves gently rubbed into her flanks. "For keeps."

“I agree," she said, though her body language seemed to take that as something of a rejection, as she settled into a firm snuggle, letting things stop there.

He nipped firmly into the fur of her snout in slow exploration. "That wasn't exactly a no, that… I was asking. What is this, between us?" He squeezed her, hooves pressing in around her tailbase. "Are we being two adults lost in a moment together? I'm really enjoying this moment, and the company."

... than consummating the marriage. (clop)

Justin let out a little sigh of relief. "Thank you, both of you." He smiled at Alice, then looked at Amelia, curiosity growing in his eyes. "Did you get, I mean, are you a wolf too? It's okay if you are! I'm dedicated to this now." He gently pawed at the ground. "I want to know more about you both. We're a herd now."

“Me? No… not yet, anyways. I’ve known Alice forever, so I know plenty about them, but… well, I expect you’ll probably pass it to me, the same way Alice passed it to you. Even if you do prove immune, yourself,” Amelia said. “We talked about this earlier, remember? Though, I was just thinking… it might be easier to go through the whole transition together, you know?”

Alice nodded. “I’ve been very careful not to accidentally bite or scratch you the whole time we’ve known each other. As for transitioning together… it will be a bit of a challenge for me to watch over you both, but you should be content to spend time together as wolves, especially if we have plenty of food to keep you from getting hungry.”

Justin licked over his snout as he leaned to peak in the pantry. "Do we have enough now?" He put a hoof over his heart. "No, I'm worrying too much. You're with us. You'll see us through, and then we'll be a happy dog, um, pack?" He frowned a little. "Would you be mad if I preferred to call us a herd?"

Alice shrugged. “Why not? We’re all to be honorary ponies, anyways, right? As for food… If it comes down to it, I should be able to direct you safely in a hunt. No hurting ponies, ever. But I think we have plenty for the time being. We just bought groceries! We’ll keep ourselves stocked up, and be prepared.” The subject of food brought her mind to her own plate, and she started in on it, forgoing the use of utensils, though she did an impressive job of not spilling anything off her plate.

Amelia, on the other hand, was quite comfortable with a fork and ate more slowly, talking only between bites. “If I remember, the wolf instincts should only be really strong at night, especially at first, so we should be able to keep control of ourselves easily in the day, including restocking our shelves. We only really need a single night’s food on hand to get us through. Not that I want to push the limit,” she suggested.

Justin gently nudged his plate, his appetite not as strong as it could be. "Well, the way I see it, it could become a full moon night just tonight, so if we're going to do it, we should do it. What does that need? I don't want to hurt Amelia." He twitched an ear up at Alice, looking to her for an experienced answer.

Alice blushed a bit, squirming slightly. “Well, ummm… some privacy I guess? I don’t know if it’s too soon to pass it on yet, but it passes by bite, scratch, or… how to phrase this. Make her your b- mare. I know you don’t want to hurt her, but the first time…”

Amelia shook her head. “Trust me, I’ll be fine there. Are you blushing? I thought you didn’t get embarrassed by this kind of thing.”

Alice flailed a paw at the two of them. “It’s just different when it’s, you know.”

Justin looked relieved when it became clear the blush being spoken wasn't one of his own, not that he didn't have one, burning in his cheeks. "O-oh! Well… You are my mare, if you want to do that…" He wagged his tail a little. "As your stallion, you get to have, uh, that, whenever you want, but it sounds like Alice's way would work better this time?" His words were slow and measured as excitement pulsed through him in a hammering beat.

Amelia grinned and slipped an arm around Justin, gently exploring the fur on his shoulder with her fingers. “Why? Was there something in particular you wanted to wait on before we get our turn together?” Looking at Alice with a mischievous grin she added “or did you just want to see her make me her ‘mare’ first?~”

Alice blinked a few times cocking her head in confusion as she tried to figure out what Amelia was even talking about, before burying her head under her paws to hide her blush. “Amelia! Where do you even get these ideas?!”

Justin's confusion deepened. "What? No! I mean, we're not even sure if I can, at all. What if I'm not going to and I don't even carry it? Then we'll… just have a good time and nothing, I guess?" His fight fled him as he described the situation. "I guess that wouldn't be so bad after all."

Amelia giggled and stroked his mane. “Well, unless we're really strict about washing or something, you’ll probably spread it from her to me eventually. I'm not trying to become a wolf, per se. I just want to be with my stallion, without worrying about it. If nothing happens but our stallion enjoying his mares, that works for me.” She paused a moment before asking in a loud whisper “You do want me to be your mare, don't you? Now’s the time to back out if you don't.”

His ears relaxed a little at first, only to go erect at her question. "Of course! I really do want to get to know you better though." He held out his forehooves. "We're stuck with each other." A smile split his face. "I just want to know more about the wonderful gift destiny has given me." He reared up, standing a bit wobbly before he grabbed onto Amelia, hugging.

Amelia stumbled a bit before catching his weight and returning the hug, giving a pleased “mmm” into his shoulder fur. “Hmmm… how about we go back to the bedroom and talk a bit in private? Just you and me and my clever fingers…”

Alice nodded her agreement. “You two should have some alone time together, and now is as good a time as any.”

Coloring at the implications, but not refusing, he moved to slide back to a more natural four-legged gait. "We're going to need a larger bed… I suppose we'll just be cozy tonight." He didn't sound that torn up about it, and led the way with an energetic clip-clop/

Amelia spent a few moments gathering the dishes from dinner before following after, tingling a bit with nervous energy. Finally alone with the stallion again, Amelia slipped into bed after him, squeezing in a bit cozily, still skimpily dressed at the moment. “Yeah, this is pretty tight for even two, much less three.” Her arms slipped lightly around Justin, one behind his back and the other resting on his chest, allowing her to avoid falling off the bed, narrowly. “So… private talk… is there anything you want to ask me, first?”

Justin worked his hooves around her and gave a turn, putting her on top and resting on his barrel. He served reasonably as a furry pillow. "Well, do you have any dreams? I mean, I suppose if you did, they probably involved where you came from, but… Well, do you? I want to be a good stallion, which means helping my mares live up to themselves." He leaned in to nuzzle gently at her neck.

“That’s a good one,” she said, thinking for a moment as she squirmed into a more comfortable position. “Back home, I was pretty comfortable in my job but dreaming of being able to meet a decent man that Alice wouldn’t have a problem with. Now, it’s kind of flipped. I’m still… not entirely sure how we’ll work out everything between us, but I do think it’ll be fine. But as for my work… there’s so much new things to learn about the plants here, I’m pretty excited, but I don’t have any of the equipment I’m used to working with, and there’s so much I don’t know that would be considered common knowledge or at least already known. And I don’t know how you guys handle funding for scientists here, so I don’t know what I’d need to do to actually make it my job again. I guess we’ll start with meeting the Princesses and going from there?” She finally paused, refocusing her eyes to smile down at the stallion below her.

His forehooves went over her shoulders and hooked, hooves pressing her back and holding her affectionately. "You're not that different from me. I love studying plants, and the properties of them. Alchemy, I've mentioned it before? We could be alchemists together! I'll show you my lab." He started to get excited, tail wagging to and fro. "I've never had an assistant besides my teacher before. What kind of equipment did you use?"
Amelia looked down between her legs, blushing and grinning a bit as the naked stallion beneath her moved back and forth from the wagging. She shook her head, clearing the thoughts for the moment as she tried to concentrate on the conversation. “Microscopes to see the little details, computers to help track all the data. We had a hydroponics lab at the university to grow plants under controlled conditions, and see how they reacted to different nutrient levels and such. Maybe I should just start out as your assistant… I’m sure you could teach me quite a bit.” As she talked, she let one of her hands wander, rubbing his belly lightly as it drifted lower.

So many of those words went sailing over his head, eroding his cheeriness to a new dismay. "I… don't even know what some of those are. We can get a microscope! Those are expensive… We're going to have to save up…" He glanced away before gently pulling her down back on top of himself. Though he seemed not conscious of their contact, he gently rubbed against her, warm and affectionate. "We'll manage."

“Right… we’ll manage. Somehow,” she said, snuggling in close and pressing her chest against his. She let a few seconds pass between them in silence, before her fingers slipped down lower and began to gently explore his stallionhood, trapped as it was between him and her shorts. “You’ll just have to show me your way for now. Tomorrow. For now, well… just relax.”

He drew in a sharp breath as her fingers touched against the sensitive organ. "I'm not feeling very relaxed." He smiled, hoping his goofy joke would work as his hips bucked forward. "You're overdressed. I'm afraid I'm going to get you messy." He pulled her closer, whispering gently, "I'd rather get you nice and warm."

Amelia giggled at his cheesy lines, before beginning the awkward process of getting herself undressed. It necessitated pulling away from him, at least for a little while, but soon enough she was snuggled against him, flesh to flesh, with his hardness pressed against her belly as she went back to work, teasing it even more this time as she felt him up. “I have a feeling things are going to get very hot in here, very soon,” she said, trying to match him, line for line.

He ran his hooves in slow exploring motions across her body, feeling from her shoulders slowly down to her hips. "You're so interestingly shaped." He perked his ears. "I mean that as a compliment. You're so soft and squishy." He gently squeezed at her hips. "It's like holding a delicate doll. I don't want to hurt you…"

She gave a light ‘mmm’ as he explored her body, the feel of hooves and fur against her skin a quite unfamiliar one, but not bad under the circumstances. “I’m not that fragile, but do refrain from kicking me. I don’t heal as fast as Alice…” Looking down and watching herself as she slowly rubbed her moist womanhood against his hardened shaft, spreading her moisture along him, a thought occurred to her. “Oh! I wonder if she even heals down there… like is she going to be like a virgin every time? That sounds awful…”

The turn of conversation took him off guard as he tilted his head at her. "I'll be sure to let you know one way or the other, but I'd hope it wouldn't be uncomfortable, but let's focus on you." He settled on her plump bottom. "You have built-in handles," he almost giggled as he pulled her against himself, grinding the pulsing member along her petals. "Most mares aren't... Let's not compare. You're amazing for what you are." And perhaps more than a little strange, but his twitching member revealed him for the terrible xenophile he could be, still finding things to be attracted to in her alien form.

"Good answer,” she said before moaning lightly. She took her time, enjoying the sensations and exploring his fur with her hands before finally taking in a deep breath, gripping his member in one hand to guide it, lifting herself up and lowering herself slowly onto his shaft. She had to use her fingers to spread herself to allow him entrance, but she seemed somehow well practiced at it. She took him surprisingly easily and painlessly. It was a stretch for her, but much less so than it had been for Alice. “Wow… that’s. That's big. Just give me a minute.”

His eyes widened as he penetrated into her, trying to resist a powerful buck, which became little rocks up against her supple flesh, driving his blunt shaft deeper into that welcoming crevice. "Y-you're perfect." This he didn't have to exaggerate. the sensation of being tight, but not uncomfortable was just right for him, and he trembled with delight, wanting to go even faster. "Does it hurt?" Despite his lust, his care still throbbed as powerfully as any desire.

Amelia quickly shook her head. “I’ve had some… experience with… ‘toys’. Even one shaped… a bit like you,” she managed, blushing a bit at the confession even as she began to move against him. “Nothing quite as big as you though. And nowhere near as warm and caring.” She slowly and carefully leaned down to give him a light kiss. “You can go a bit faster, just… ease into it, okay?”

Justin pressed his fuzzy lips against her naked ones, kissing gently. "I can go as fast or slow as you want." He pushed into her in a smooth motion, exploring her with his fifth leg and a little whicker of pleasure. "You are my mare." His nostrils flared, gulping in air as he drew from her several inches. "You're my everything, even before my things, which I hope become your things, together."

She snuggled against him, moving her hips to meet his own with a deep moan. She wasn’t quite sure what he was saying, but the tone of it felt right, and she simply enjoyed it, letting her mood wax that much more sensual with his words. “You are my stallion,” she managed to reply after a few minutes, “something I hadn’t dared to dream of having for myself. But here you are, fulfilling me in ways nothing else could.” She struggled to come up with more words, then gave a light shrug as she decided to focus instead on their pleasure. She slipped a hand down between them, exploring his shaft and balls with her fingers, what wasn’t buried within her anyways, while her thumb applied a bit of pressure to her clit, working herself up more and drawing deeper moans.

The movements of his human mate's fingers were all new and strange, but not entirely incomparable to… He giggled a little as he rolled with her, holding her steady as he slowly got her under himself, pinning her down lightly. "I figured it out. You're like a unicorn, without the magic." He leaned in. "You don't need magic." He drove deep into her, grunting in the soft squelch of a sound as he became one with the exotic female.

Amelia giggled a bit in response before wrapping her arms and legs around her stallion, closing her eyes and simply losing herself to their passionate bonding. From there she only managed a few single words of encouragement here and there amongst her cries, until they had finished and she could catch her breath and regain her thoughts.

When she did, her fingers played lightly through his mane as she drew him into a long kiss. “I made the right choice, coming here. With you,” she said, as much to herself as to him.

His tongue flicked out as his snout hovered inches from her, licking her across the lips. "I made the right choice, inviting you here, with me." His tail wagging eagerly, he snuggled into her. "We do need a bigger bed though… Come on, let's get nice and cleaned up. I'll get your back if you get mine."

“Alright… no need to rub it in by making Alice smell sex on us all night,” Amelia conceded. “Though I might be a bit disappointed if you try to keep the shower chaste this time,~” she teased. Trapped under him for the moment, she gave him a playful swat on the cutie mark to get him moving.

The cutie mark proved to be a good point to swat an Equestrian pony to get them moving and Justin hopped down from the bed with the clop of hooves on wood. "I'll get the water ready for you, dear." He smiled and looked around hastily as if something just caught up with him. "Wait, again?" As if the idea was a little unusual for him. "If my mare wishes it." With a cheery whistle on his lips, he briskly trotted out of the room.

A few minutes later, Alice lifted her head from the couch where she was laying, ears perked and face showing her confusion. The sounds of running water washing over someone was not unexpected, and had been going on for a few minutes now. The sounds of passion earlier were completely expected as well, she had even encouraged them a bit herself. But hearing them both at once just didn’t make sense. Humans were weird. Or ponies. Maybe both? She lay her head back down with a sigh, trying not to listen in too intently.