Twice an Alien

Ch. 6 Deadly Training

Man this sure is a comfy body pillow. So soft, warm, and fluffy. Minus this strange pointy bit here at the top. Wait a minute did my body pillow just move? “Uhhhhhmmmmmmm”. And now it’s mumbling that’s not normal behavior for a body pill-. My last conscious thoughts before falling asleep yesterday suddenly filled my mind. I remembered lying on the couch giving Twilight a belly rub before finally succumbing to sleep. I looked down at what I was currently making my little spoon to find Twilight quietly sleeping in my arms.

Oh man I really need to find a way to get out of this situation before she wakes up. I would hate for Twilight to get embarrased and start avoiding me again, especially after I just fixed that situation last night. However even though I recognized that I needed to get up I found myself very hesitant to do so. Twilight was very soft, very warm, and very cute. It was like hugging an adorable plushy that had suddenly come to life. I hugged Twilight a little closer and got an endearing little contented sigh from her for my efforts.

Dammit! I have scant mental fortitude to convince myself to end this cuddle session and then she has to go and do that! I sighed. I have a few things I need to do today so I might as well get started. I can’t sit here cuddling Twilight forever. I very carefully, and regrettably, shifting my sideways position into a sitting one. I didn’t want to leave Twilight alone on the couch so I figured I’d just return her to her bed on the way up to mine. Pulling her close to me once more I stood up and walked towards the stairs.

Making it to the second floor I noticed Spike curled up sleeping in his little bed basket again. I quietly made my way over to Twilight's bed and gently place her on top. I then pulled her sheets up and covered her. I noticed her horn poking into her pillow a little bit and very carefully shifted her head so that it didn’t poke a hole in it. Now that my attention was on her horn I wondered how and why the horn was used to cast unicorn magic. It seemed strange to me that unicorns required their horns to cast magic.

Pegasus and Earth ponies apparently had magic within them but they didn’t need a focal point to use it like the unicorns. Mother had told me stories of other alien civilizations that had the ability to use magic and from what I could tell most hadn’t needed a focal point to cast magic either. I wonder if Unicorns had others uses for their horns besides this obvious one. Maybe Twilight would let me study her horn later. I’m rather curious as to what they feel like. Not to mention I’d like to see if I could identify what they were made out of.

However as Twilight was asleep my curiosity would have to be satiated later. Backing away from the bed I turned and made my way towards my room. Before I climbed the stairs I stopped and decided against going up to my temporary room. As everyone is still asleep I can just meditate downstairs. The stairs to the third floor often creek and I’d hate to wake Twilight now after I just got her resettled. Having decided on my course of action I turned around and tiptoed down the stairs to the library's ground floor.

Walked over to the green couch from before I curled myself into a relaxed meditative pose and began my session. I had a lot to think about before starting today. My first priority today should be to go and get my other clothing from Rarity. I also wanted to talk to her about getting some underwear and socks. All I had right now were the ones I was currently using and they wouldn’t last me forever. I also needed to see if she could make me something to help me in collect apples while bucking. I was hesitant to go back after yesterdays incident but It’s not like I could avoid seeing her again while I was here. It would also be terribly rude to avoid her due to something that wasn’t her fault.

My second priority today should be to find a place to practice my rusty abilities in private. I wondered if there was someplace close by that I could easily use. Perhaps I could use someplace in the back reaches of applejacks farm? No. I didn’t want the apple family to accidentally stumble across me. Not to mention I was worried I’d destroy more of their property accidentally.

Perhaps I could find an open field a ways away from Ponyville? I didn’t have a very good grasp of the surrounding area around this village so that would be difficult. I also didn’t want a random pegasus to spot me if I decided to train in a open field. No I guess that wouldn’t work either. Alright so I need somewhere I can destroy things, that no one will stumble across, and where pegasus can’t easily spot me. I’ve got it! I’ll just use that forest I found myself in when I was first transported to Equestria! No one would miss a few trees in a forest. The dense canopy of the forest should keep any pegasus from spotting me and I doubt anyone is going to wander around a place with wild manticores roaming about.

Even as perfect a place as the forest seemed I recognized that I would have to be wary of any dangerous creatures wandering through it as well. Now that I was sober any creature I wandered across most likely wouldn’t pose a threat to me. At these thoughts the words of my people flew through my mind, reminding me of another forgotten lesson. ‘The native species of a planet can either be friend or foe. Either way you must never underestimate them.’

Hmmmmm even if the animals I knew of right now might not be much of a threat there could still be other more dangerous ones. If I ever ran into one with magic that could be a rather big problem for me. I’ll need to be careful. Who knows, maybe if I’m lucky I might find a few friendly animals out there. Very well. I will seek out a training spot within the forest and attempt to learn about a few of the animals within that call it home. Now on to the last and more confusing topic. The strange level of attraction I suddenly feel towards these ponies.

I was a male and as such understood that all males biologically sought females to reproduce with. This is why I always found it strange that I never had any raw feelings of attraction towards the human females on Earth. I had assumed that I was the type of person that only found personalities attractive and disregarded looks entirely. However my newfound attraction to these ponies physical forms disproved this theory entirely. I know mother found a lover amongst the humans but i’d never asked her if she found him physically attractive. I don’t know if these feelings are normal or not.

I sighed. Damn I really wish I could talk to mother again. I hadn’t realized how much I relied on her knowledge until I was stuck here in Equestria without access to her. I shook my head. Missing the font of knowledge that is within my mothers head won’t help me solve this problem now. I’ve got to use what knowledge she passed down to me and figure this out. I concentrated. Alright, I’ll visually analyze and compare the human and pony forms in my head. Surely I’ll be able to figure something out from that.

My mind latched itself onto the closest female friend I’d had back on Earth. Jessica. She was about 6 feet tall, had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a decently healthy build. Any new friend I had brought to meet her always asked me if she had a boyfriend as soon as they saw she was out of earshot. I assumed that, and the fact that they always stared at her large breasts, was enough confirmation that she was an attractive human female. I guess the easiest pony to visualize in my head, to compare against her, would be Twilight. I’d spent the most time around her here in Ponyville and her form was easy to picture. Also if I was being honest with myself I found her appearance rather attractive.

I pictured the two side by side in my head and studied their forms. Unfortunately after a few minutes of noting their differences I was no closer to understanding my new attractions then I had been before I started. Dammit there are too many different features! I need to remove all of the possible variables and add them back in one by one. Instead of picturing Jessica and Twilight as before I cleared their bodies of any discernible features and took a more medical approach. I pictured only a bland white pony and human form. As soon as I had the two side by side I finally understood what was causing these new feelings.

It’s not just Twilight and her friends that I’m attracting to. It’s not even ponies that I’m specifically attracted too. It’s the quadruped form. WHAT……. I don’t understand. The only form I had ever known was that of the humans. My mother, father, and myself all had humans forms. Why on Equis would I be attracted to quadrupeds….. Unless….. Perhaps that was my peoples original form. I had always asked mother to show me visions of our people so that I could know what they looked like. Every time she had refused my requests. She said there was no use knowing or caring what they looked like as our family was human now.

I remember her cutting some visions she had given me short and I never understood why. Perhaps it was to prevent me from seeing one of our people in their natural form. Sadly that could just be conjecture….. WAIT. I also remember my mother getting very uncomfortable and nervous around horses on Earth. I found it odd when she would stare at them and shift around uneasily. I assumed that she had a fear of them for some reason. Perhaps it made her uncomfortable because it reminded her of our peoples true form. My mother told me she had been on Earth for a very long time before her body shifted into the form of the humans. My god it all made sense. I couldn’t be positive without her confirmation but at the moment all the pieces pointed towards my peoples original form being horse like quadrupeds.

Fascinating. Who would have thought that attraction towards quadrupeds would be passed down to me biologically. I suppose if you stop and consider genetics it actually does make sense. As protectors my people's physical biology can shift within a few hundred years to fit whatever is needed to best protect the planet. However one generation of physical biological changes isn’t nearly enough to overwrite thousands of years of ingrained natural instincts. Maybe that’s why mother never told me what our people really look like. Perhaps she was afraid I’d be attracted to one of the creatures on Earth, that wasn’t human, and shunned.

So many questions I’ll never know the answer too. It’s a shame. Putting that past me, now that I’m attracted to these ponies am I ok with showing it like I have been? So far the only one I’d directly interacted with in that way had been Applejack and she seemed to take my interest quite well. Applejack not only took my compliments in stride but also returned them. She didn’t seem upset or uncomfortable in any noticeable way. Nor had Big Mac, besides my feeling up his sister's butt. Maybe I should just go with what feels natural?

I’ve never felt this way before but that doesn’t mean I should necessarily fear these new feelings. Life would be boring if I shunned everything that was out of my normal range of experiences. Very well. I will no longer stifle my feelings and instead just speak my mind. Perhaps I could use these feelings to get the ponies of this land to trust and open up to me. If I was indeed stuck in these lands any information I could get them to share would be invaluable. This may also be a good chance to get to know the ponies of this land better. I’m interested to see what types of conversations letting my true feelings out could produce.

I felt a great deal of relaxation wash over me. I hated being confused and now that I had processed my thoughts and emotions I felt energized and ready to take on the day. I relaxed my pose and looked in front of me.

“HOLY SHIT!” I yelled in surprise. Not a few inches away from me, happily taking notes, was Twilight Sparkle. Placing my hand on my chest I felt my heart rapidly beating in my ribcage. Well there goes that calm peaceful state I had just reached. Letting my heart calm down I looked at Twilight and said, “What on Equis are you doing Twilight?”

“I woke up and came downstairs to get some breakfast. On my way to the kitchen I saw you sitting in a strange pose. I tried to get your attention but you never responded. I noticed that your face was shifting through a range of emotions and that you’d sigh every once in awhile. I thought that you might be performing some strange human ritual so I got my notes and started recording.” Ahhh so she had been seeking knowledge. Exactly what I’d expect from Twilight. I smiled at her.

“Your insatiable thirst for knowledge is such a charming feature of yours Twilight. I may dismiss your questions sometimes but I’m still glad you never let that discourage you.” I put my hand to her cheek. “Never lose that childlike wonder for the unknown Twilight. I have a feeling you’ll need it one day.” I removed my hand and watched that blush I liked so much creep onto her face.

“I-I…. Thank you Cicero. No one has ever told me that my constant questions are a charming part of my personality before.” I smiled wider.

“No problem Twilight. How about you and I see to your original reason for coming down here and get some food? I’ll tell you what I was doing over breakfast.”

“It’s a deal!” She happily said. I got off the couch and we both walked towards the kitchen. I heard the sound of someone preparing a meal in the kitchen. Must be Spike hard at work again. Entering the kitchen I saw it was in fact Spike preparing what looked like a plate of toast and eggs. Interesting, I didn’t think that these ponies would eat eggs. Even though it’s not meat I had assumed the diets of these ponies would be more along the lines of a vegan. Not that I was complaining.

“Hi Twilight, Hi Cicero! Breakfast is almost ready if you want to wait at the table.” Spike said cheerily. I guess the little guy is a morning person.

“Thanks for making me breakfast two days in a row Spike. I really appreciate it” I said gratefully.

“It’s no problem Cicero. I like preparing and cooking food!” He likes making food eh? I wonder if he’ll do that when he grows up. I smiled at the image of a much larger spike in a pink frilly chef outfit that barely fit him. I’d eat at his restaurant. Turning my attention back to Twilight and saw her still floating the quill and parchment she had been using earlier. I shouldn’t make her wait any longer.

“Alright Twilight let’s get started. Your guess that I was performing a ritual this morning wasn’t entirely wrong. Every day, usually in the morning, I like to meditate on recent events in my life. This helps me clear my mind and think about everything going on in my life at the moment. I usually address any concerns or worries nagging at my mind and then plan out what I want to accomplish that day. You could call this meditation my morning ritual.”

Twilight finished recording what I had said asked, “Why were you sitting in that strange position when I found you?”

“Ahhh that. Can I assume you ponies have meditation or some variation of it here in Equestria?” Twilight nodded. “Well then you’ll know that some ponies who meditate usually take a meditative pose to help them relax. The simple act of getting into this pose helps calm your body and lets your mind know it’s time for meditation. The pose I was using earlier is a very commonly used one on Earth. It’s a relaxed state that you wouldn’t naturally fall into unless you did so purposefully to meditate. I cross my legs, linked my hands, and sit up straight.”

“Are there other meditation positions besides the one you were using?” she asked.

“Humans have developed hundreds actually. Although some are a lot more common than others. The position is just a way to help you get into the meditative mood though. Meditation is mostly about the relaxation and mindset.” Twilight diligently wrote down everything I said.

Twilight seemed like she wanted to ask me another question but she was interrupted by Spike saying, “Breakfast is served,” as he placed a plate in front of us both. Sunny side up eggs and buttered toast, a classic breakfast choice. I didn’t give Twilight a chance to start her questioning again as I dug into breakfast. Twilight followed suite and also began eating. I was still rather hungry from yesterday and finished quickly.

“Delicious as usual Spike.” I said patting my stomach. He smiled in return. I saw Twilight finish her breakfast soon after me and decided it was my turn to ask her some questions. “Twilight do you remember me mentioning I didn’t know how much money Applejack gave me yesterday?” She nodded her head. “I can count the number of bits I have, since you showed me what each coin means, but the actual buying power of these bits escapes me. To help me get an understanding of their value can you give me an average estimate for how much it would cost to stay at an inn in Ponyville?”

Twilight thought about my question for a second. After a few moments of calculation she said, “Around 30 bits per night.”

“Excellent. Stay right there please. I’ll be right back.” I walked out of the kitchen back towards the green couch from yesterday. I remembered putting my money sack next to it when I got home yesterday. I found it resting against the floor and couch. I picked it up and used my hand to rifle through it as I walked back to Twilight. Damn that’s a lot of bits. There must be three hundred plus bits in this bag. I know I did a lot of work yesterday but Applejack must have given me a bonus to be nice.

I smiled at her generosity. Apparently getting a job at Sweet Apple Acre’s had been one of my better choices since appearing in Equestria. I walked back into the kitchen and saw Twilight patiently waiting for my return. She turned when she heard me rifling through my bag for a specific amount of bits. Pulling out 200 bits worth of money I gently laid it down on the table in front of her. “This is for letting me stay here and eat your food. Before you complain that it’s too much let me warn you. If you don’t take all of this money I’ll be forced to use my secret weapon on you.” I adopted a grim face. “You don’t want that.”

Twilight either didn’t see my face or didn’t care and instead immediately began to complain. “Cicero this is entirely too much money. While I appreciate your generosity I already told you that I’m letting you stay here because I want too. You don’t need to give me anything. If anything I think it’s a fair trade. You’ve been answering my questions for the past couple of days and……… what are you doing?” she asked confused.

As soon as Twilight had started rejecting my generosity I had started stretching. I had just finished cracking my knuckles and looked over to her. “I’m just preparing my secret weapon. I did warn you what this would happen if you didn’t take the money.” Twilight looked at me with even more confusion than before I had answered her question. “Twilight I’m sorry for this but you need to learn a lesson.” I then slightly bowed to her.

“Cicero what are you doi- WUAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!” Twilight never got to finish sentence as I leapt over to her and started viciously tickling her whole body. “HAHAHAH Cicero stop I heheheheh I just want you to keep HAHAHAAH your money!”

“Ohohoho a resilient one eh? I have ways of breaking your will. BEHOLD MY POWER!” I then doubled my efforts snaking my hands around her body widely tickling anything that seemed vulnerable to my attacks. Twilight was unable to hold herself up anymore and fell to the ground laughing. This only gave me easier access to her body and I happily took advantage of this fact. After thirty seconds of these constant tickle attacks Twilight finally spoke up.

“HAHAHAHHAHAH OK HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA I YIELD I’LL TAK-WUHHHAHAHAHAHHA I’LL TAKE YOUR MONEY!” She desperately yelled out. I stopped the onslaught of my attacks and released Twilight.

“Damn right you will.” I said triumphantly. “Now wouldn’t that have been easier if you’d just accepted the money in the first place?” Twilight tried to say something but all that came out was indiscriminate muttering and small giggles that were still wracking her body. “I’ll take that as a, ‘Yes Cicero. I’ve learned my lesson and will let you help contribute to household expenses in the future.’” I finished the last part in my best Twilight voice impersonation.

Twilight finally managed to pick herself up a minute later and turned her back on me whilst huffing. “Oh come on now don’t be like that!” I said exasperated. Twilight looked back at me with a cute little pouty face and huffed again. Turning away from me once more she gave her tail a flick almost like she was dismissing me with it. “But… but I just gave you money! I’m the good guy here.” Twilight didn’t respond. Dammit I know what I have to do to get her to forgive me and I know that she knows as well.

Sigh. “Fine. I’ll tell you about a neat human invention again sometime soon.” I said defeated.

“It has to be a really technically detailed invention too. I want to record something interesting for the princess.” She said with authority. I held the back of my neck with my hand. It’s not like I didn’t want to tell Twilight about the human worlds inventions. I was worried if I gave too many technical details it would lead to them discovering other knowledge unnaturally. Time and time again it had been proven that giving advanced technology to civilizations that weren’t ready for it was dangerous for all involved. Then again the ponies do have magic and I guess that would mitigate the danger of any technological inventions I could give them.

“Well… I don’t know Twilight. I want too but…..” I said very hesitantly. She turned around with her big eyes shining. They threatened to shed tears if I told her no.

“P-please Cicero.” FUCK FUCK FUCK. That’s so unfair. I looked at her eyes and knew my decision was already made for me.

“Uggggg fine! Just stop with the eyes! That is so incredibly unfair. I guess I was serious when I said you ponies had weaponized cuteness yesterday.”

“YIPEE! Oh this is going to be so exciting! I’ll have so much to tell the princess next time I see her! A technical invention of the humans. I need to get some notes and prepare for our session later.” She said while bouncing around happily. Outwardly I grumbled about my defeat at her hooves. Inwardly I was melting at the adorable Twilight jumping around in joy at getting to learn something new. M-Maybe I should teach her more things…. Just to help the pony civilization you know…. Not because I want to see her joyously jump about-WAIT.

OHOHOHOHOHHOHOO NO YOU DON’T CICERO! This is how it starts! I’ll just give one more thing to the cute little ponies. Just to help out right? ‘How much trouble could they get into with a radio?’ I’ll jokingly laugh. Next week it’ll be gas powered engines. THEN NUCLEAR FISSION AND ATOMIC BOMBS THE WEEK AFTER! Granted I doubt I could provide enough details to effectively explain nuclear fission to them. I only understood the basics of advanced concepts like that.

Twilight had stopped jumping around and was now giddily shaking in anticipation. “Prepare for our next invention session if you must but I need to go to Rarity’s for now.” I said.

“Rarity’s? Why do you need to go there?” Twilight asked.

“I need to pick up my new clothing designs from Rarity.”

“But Spike told me you went to get those yesterday? Aren’t you wearing them now?” she said confused.

“Well I was able to get this pair yesterday but Rarity was…. Tired and needed to rest. I forgot to get the other pairs before I left.” I didn’t enjoy lying but I really didn’t want to draw attention to what happened yesterday. “Also I wanted to talk to her about ordering some other types of clothing.” I added on.

“Oh, alright then. I’m going to stay here and read up on technical documentation procedures. I don’t want to miss a single detail during our session. Have a good time,” she said as she walked out of the kitchen and into the library. I shook my head at that. I’m all for proper documentation but I would never voluntarily read a book about it unless I absolutely needed too. I heard a quiet scuffling behind me and I turned to see Spike doing the dishes from this morning. I had almost forgotten he was there as he’d been so quiet until now.

I noticed he was wearing a frown while doing the dishes. Ahhh shoot, I really shouldn’t have been talking about Rarity in front of him. He’s probably still confused about her right now. I figure I should check up on him. “You alright there Spike? You seem a bit down bro.” Spike sighed and kept doing the dishes.

“Yeah I’m fine. I’m just disappointed when I think about Rarity is all.” Oh? Had he already made a decision?

“You want to talk about it?” I said trying to be supportive.

“Not really much to talk about if I’m honest. I took your advice and went over my limited interactions with Rarity. I realized that even though I find her beautiful she’s always treated me like a child whenever I’m near her. I think she’s grateful that I’m willing to help her when make clothing. I also think she’s grateful that I help her dig up gems to put on her clothing. Sadly I don’t think she holds any affection towards me as a potential partner though.”

“Well Spike you’re still rather young. Maybe if you just give it time?” I said trying to help. He shook his head at my words.

“It’s not just that either. I don’t really like any of the things that she does. Fancy parties, dancing, reading romantic novels, creating clothing, or anything else. I like Rarity but I don’t think I ever loved her. I just thought I did.” He finished in a somber tone. I was going to argue with him but after hearing his words I realized he was probably right. I hadn’t been here long enough to know anything about their interactions and it sounded like he’d made up his mind on this subject. “Now that I’ve realized this I don’t know what to do. It’s a bit depressing to realize what you thought you felt wasn’t so.” He added on.

“Then just start over man.” I said. He looked up at me. “I’m guessing you’ve been hung up on Rarity for a long time now right?” He nodded his head sadly. “Well then start looking for someone else. Normally I’d just tell someone of your age to wait until they were older before they started looking for a girlfriend. However in your case I can tell by your responses that you’re rather emotionally developed for your age. At least in comparison to humans. If you do decide to go looking for a girlfriend please try and find someone closer to your age this time. It will definitely make things a lot easier.”

He gave a sheepish grin at my last words. “Thanks Cicero. I’ll think on what you’ve said today. Your advice yesterday really helped me figure a few things out. Maybe I’ll take your advice again.” He said with a hopeful smile.

“Well if you ever need any advice or help with girls you can always come to me. I may not be the most experienced guy in the world but I've definitely had my fair share of interactions with women. Although since you’ll most likely be trying to court mares I’m not sure how useful my knowledge will actually be,” I finished laughing. “Anyways I need to start heading towards Rarity’s. I’ll see you later Spike.” I held my hand out for another fistbump and Spike eagerly met my fist with his.

With that taken care of I grabbed the money bag resting on the table and walked out into the library. I saw Twilight engrossed in a rather large black tome. I decided to not interrupt her studying and instead walked out of the libraries front door. I stopped in the front yard to stretch my limbs. Looking up into the sky I saw that today would most likely be another day of clear weather. I felt the sun's rays cover and warm my skin. I wonder where Equestria is located on Equis. It’s summertime yet the sun's bright rays feel as pleasant as if it were Fall. I really need to sit down with Twilight one day to ask all of the questions about Equestria I’d been storing in my mind.

Perhaps I’ll do it later today when I get back from Rarity’s. I started off down the path towards Rarity’s house as had done yesterday. As I was walking towards Rarity’s house I saw Derpy dangerously careening about in the air with a mailbag strapped to her back. How that girl manages to fly like that and stay in the air is a complete mystery to me. She happened to see me as she flew by overhead and enthusiastically waved at me. I smiled when I saw that her waving had introduced even more random movements into her already crazy flight pattern. I waved back and watcher her fly off in the direction I had come from.

With a smile still on my face I reached Rarity’s house. I really hope Rarity doesn’t remember what happened yesterday when I was using her shower. I suppose even if she does remember it’s not the end of the world. I was hoping she had forgotten more for her sake then mine. Rarity seemed like an interesting mare that would be nice to spend more time with. I was afraid that if she remembered what happened yesterday she would be embarrassed and unable to relax around me. I sighed. Let’s get this over with. I walked through the front door and heard the familiar jingle of a bell.

“Coming!” came the familiar voice of Rarity. She walked down the stairs and her eyes lit up upon seeing me. “Cicero darling! Might I say that outfit looks absolutely fabulous on you! I’m very happy with how the redone designs turned out.” She said very cheerily. Awesome, she doesn’t remember. I honestly can’t believe my luck right now. Who would have thought such a farfetched pipe dream would actually come true. Now I won’t have to deal with calming down an embarrassed Rarity.

“I couldn’t agree more Rarity. While the original designs were quite stunning I believe these new ones are even more so.” She smiled at me. “That’s actually one of the reasons I came here today. I needed to pick up the other outfits you designed for me. I couldn’t get them yesterday as you were indisposed.” Rarity frowned at this.

“Yes Sweetie Belle mentioned that you found me unconscious and moved me to the couch. Thank you for that Cicero.” I waved my hand dismissively at her praise.

“It was nothing. You practically weigh the same as a feather, so moving you to a more comfortable position was easy.”

“Well I do take precautions to keep my figure ladylike,” she said happily.

“I am sorry that I had to leave you before you work up Rarity. I had some business to attend to with Twilight at the library.”

“Think nothing of it darling. I’m sorry you had to see me in that state at all. Usually my exhaustion from overwork doesn’t sneak up on me that fast. It’s a bit strange really.” She said confused. I need to steer the conversation away from this subject before she gets suspicious and remembers something.

“Well nobody's perfect Rarity. We all make mistakes from time to time. That’s why you have friends to help you out in your time of need.” I smiled at her.

“I suppose you’re right Cicero.” She finished smiling back.

“Now if you wouldn’t mind I’d like to order something from you. Hopefully while I collect those other pairs of clothing you made for me.” Before Rarity could respond I heard the chime of her doors bell followed by the sound of small hooves clomping into the store. I turned around to see a very dirty Sweetie Belle. If it hadn’t been for her pink and purple hair I would have never guessed it was her. Sweetie Belle’s white coat was completely covered in multiple layers of very thick dried mud. What on Earth had this child been doing?

“Hey there Cicero!” Sweetie Belle happily said.

“Hey there Sweetie Belle. What on Equis did you do to get so incredibly filthy?” Sweetie Belle looked down at herself almost as if she had forgotten she was covered in mud.

“I was trying to get my cutie mark with my two other friends! We were trying to get our cutie mark in mud wrestling today! I don’t know if I got my cutie mark yet as I’m too covered in mud to tell.” She finished slightly saddened. Before I had a chance to let her know my thoughts I heard a shriek from behind me.

“SWEETIE BELLE WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT COMING INTO MY STORE COVERED IN FILTH!?” Said a very flustered Rarity. Sweetie Belle acted as if this interaction between herself and her sister was a common occurrence.

“Uhhhhh….. Don’t do it?” She said in a guessing tone. Rarity covered her face with a hoof and took a deep breath. Using her magic she encased Sweetie Belle in a magical aura and floated her sister over to herself.

“Go through the back Sweetie Belle. I understand that you’re young and you will get dirty from time to time. But please for the love of Celestia don’t get my shop dirty. If you just go in through the back the customers won’t have to see the trail of dirt you leave behind yourself.” Rarity gave Sweetie Belle the same disapproving look I’d seen on my mother's face when I did something bad as a child.

“Sorry Rarity.” Sweetie Belle said looking down sadly.

“It’s alright dear, just please try and remember next time. Now let’s get you into a shower and cleaned up.” Rarity turned back to me. “Please follow me Cicero. The rest of your outfits are upstairs near the bathroom.” She then trotted up the stairs with Sweetie Belle floating behind her, still encased in her magical aura. I laughed at the two and followed along behind them. Making it up the stairs I saw Rarity toss Sweetie Belle into the bathroom. “Don’t come out of here until you’re spotless Sweetie Belle. Do you understand me?”

“Yes Rarity.” I heard a defeated Sweetie Belle say. Rarity closed the door and turned around to face me.

“Do you think she’ll find her cutie mark underneath all that mud?” I said chuckling.

“I severely doubt it. Truth be told all of the adults around here know what Sweetie Belle is good at. She has such a marvelous singing voice and I’m sure her cutie mark has something to do with that. I just wish she’d stop trying to force her cutie mark to appear and let it happen naturally in time.” Rarity said. We both heard an “AWWWWWWWW” come from the bathroom.

“I guess her special talent wasn’t mud wrestling.” I said with a grin. Rarity rolled her eyes and started walking into a room next to the bathroom. I followed after and saw the other redesigned outfits. They all looked as fetching as the one I was wearing right now. I realized that my guess yesterday about the gems designs had been correct. Each outfits gem design was modeled after one of her friends cutie marks. If that’s what she was going for then why don’t the gem colors match her friends coat colors?

“Rarity I may be thinking into this too much but did you model each outfits design after one of your friends cutie marks?” I questioned. Rarity’s eyes seem to sparkle at my words.

“I’m very happy that you remember all of our cutie marks! Yes each of the outfits has a gem design that matches my friends cutie marks!” She said very happily.

“Well then why didn’t you use gems of corresponding colors to match each of your friends coat colors with their cutie marks?” I said confused.

“That’s because the colors of the gems match our elemental jewelry that Twilight mentioned yesterday. I do so admire the beautiful colors of the elements of harmony. It’s a shame we don’t get to wear them more often.” Well that explains that mystery.

“If anything you should be glad you don’t have to wear your jewelry more often Rarity. If you wear that jewelry to create evil purifying magic then that means you’ll have probably have to deal with some rather unpleasant business.”

“Forgive me. I didn’t mean to speak lightly about such important topics. I just miss that jewelry sometimes. It works so well with my coat after all!” I laughed at Rarity’s ability to turn such an important artifact into nothing more than a fashion asset.

“Well putting that aside I like the new gem designs. As I owe you and your friends my thanks I will proudly bear your cutie marks in return.” Rarity used her levitation magic to pull all of the outfits off the mannequins and then fold them into a neat pile. She levitated the pile over to me and placed it in my hands.

“I would expect nothing less from a gentle coat such as yourself. Now on to other topics. Yesterday Sweetie Belle mentioned you had something else you wanted me to create.” Oh yeah. I completely forgot about that. Unfortunately before I had a chance the to tell Rarity what I wanted her to make Sweetie Belle made her way into the room behind me.

“Hey Rarity what’s this? I was looking through the lower cabinets for extra shampoo and I found this.” Sweetie Belle said innocently. Oh god. Please…. please no. Rarity had been facing me so she simply looked around my body at Sweetie Bell. I watched her eyes widen to their absolute maximum as her mouth fell open. GOD DAMNIT! I don’t even have to look around to know what she’s holding. I slowly turned around to face the innocent little imp that was Sweetie Belle.

There, held within her mouth, was the 8 inch long floppy horse dildo I had found the other day. It was the return of the Pink Penetrator. Shit I must have thrown it in a lower cabinet after I slapped myself across the face with it yesterday. This was even worse than yesterdays incident. I heard a strange noise coming from behind me so I turned to look back at Rarity. Her bright blush was very visible against her white muzzle. She was uttering a strange noise from her open mouth. Almost like she wanted to say something but the words refused to come out.

Well I can’t hide my knowledge of the dildo from Rarity anymore but at least I can help play damage control. I turned back to Sweetie Belle and said, “Oh man you found it!” I quickly walked over to her and took the dildo from her mouth. “I’ve been looking for this thing since yesterday. I guess I left it here by accident yesterday. Thanks for finding it Sweetie Belle.”

“No problem Cicero! But what is that?” She asked as innocently as ever.

“Uhhhh it’s an alien item I brought with me from home.” I said thinking quick.

“Oh alright. What does it do?” Dammit kid stop asking questions.

“It’s uhhhhh a back scratcher! Yeah I use it to scratch my back as I can’t reach all of it. Watch.” I mentally apologized to Rarity for what I was about to do. I held the pink penetrator in one hand and reached over my shoulder to rub it against my back in a scratching motion. I saw Rarity turn even brighter red and start breathing a little heavier.

“Ohhhh,” Said Sweetie Belle, “that makes sense.” Phew. Glad that’s over with. Now I just have to find a way to get her out of the ro- “What are the little bumps and ribs on the outside of the back scratcher for.” At this question I heard Rarity quietly wheeze as she began hyperventilating. Please for love of god let this be her last question or Rarity is going to hyperventilate and die.

“That’s for when I need to scratch a really intense itch that my hands just wouldn’t be able to satisfy.” Even in the heat of the moment I felt a more debased part of my mind silently cheer at my filthily worded double entendre. “But that’s enough questions for now Sweetie Belle. Don’t you need to go tell your friends that mud wrestling wasn’t your special talent?” I said in desperation.

“Oh my gosh you’re totally right! I need to go let Applebloom and Scootaloo know! Thanks for answering all of my questions. By Cicero. By Rarity!” I waved at her as she joyously trotted downstairs and out the front door. So she’s part of that Cutie Mark Crusader club Applebloom mentioned eh? I guess I’m not that surprised considering their sisters are also friends. Thoughts of the Cutie Mark Crusaders would have to wait until later. I turned to face Rarity.

To my surprise she was no longer hyperventilating but instead standing completely rigid. “What on Equis….” I said out loud. She was so active just a few seconds ago. What happened? I looked closer and could see that her lips were moving rapidly. I could just barely hear her saying something very quietly. Intrigued I leaned in closer and put my ear next to her lips. I also went rigid when I heard what it was she was rapidly repeating.

“It was a lovely shade of pink lady Rarity. It was a lovely shade of pink lady Rarity. It was a lovely shade of pink lady Rarity.” She kept whispering over and over. Shit. I guess the shock of the situation jogged her memories of yesterdays events. I stood back and looked over at her. My guess is the embarrassment of today combined with remembering yesterdays embarrassment shocked her body into a rigor mortis like state.

Now what do I do? I can’t pass her off to Sweetie Belle and hope she’ll forget about today's events again. Suddenly I remembered Twilight's completely relaxed state after my belly rub session yesterday. Normally i’d ask a lady like rarity before giving her a belly rub but his was an emergency. Plus her frantic whispering was frankly starting to scare me. Just like I had with Twilight yesterday I walked over and scooped up Rarity into my arms. Unlike Twilight, Rarity’s body stayed completely rigid after I picked her up. Not to mention her frantic whispering continued.

I noticed Rarity had a rather comfy looking red couch up here next to her mannequins. I quickly made my way over to it and sad down with Rarity in my lap. Somehow she was still one hundred percent cartoonishly frozen in place. I flipped Rarity onto her back and started gently rubbing her belly as I had Twilights. Even though she was frozen her fur was still unbelievably soft. Even more so than Twilight's’ had been. As I kept rubbing I wondered if Rarity used something to make her coat as soft as it was.

I saw Rarity’s legs start to droop. I smiled while doubling my rubbing efforts to now include both hands. I used the right one to rub her belly while the other petted her sides like one would a cat. After a few minutes of this Rarity had slowly drooped back down into a normal relaxed pony stance. Thankfully she had also stopped her creepy whispering. After another minute of her breathing softly and staring straight up at the ceiling she finally spoke.

“I should tell you how embarrassed a lady like me is being on the receiving end of your petting but after what just happened I’m not sure I even know how to feel embarrassment anymore.” She simply stated.

“It’s called a belly rub Rarity and from the sounds of your whispering can I take it you remember yesterdays events as well?” I asked apprehensively.

“It is unfortunately so Cicero.”

“In that case I’m sorry for lying to you yesterday. I was hoping to alleviate any future embarrassment for you by pretending it just didn’t happen. Also while I’m apologizing I’m also sorry for picking you up and giving you a belly rub without permission. I used it yesterday to help Twilight calm down and figured it would work on you as well.”

“It’s alright dear. I completely understand that you were only trying to help me yesterday. As for the belly rub i’m not offended. You were right, it did indeed calm me down. You might even considering becoming a masseur at the local spa. I’m sure many ponies would love to feel this relaxing touch of yours.” Hmmmm well there’s an interesting idea. I already had a job bucking apples for Applejack but if I bucked more than they could handle everyday perhaps I could get a second job in between work days.

“That’s definitely something i’ll consider. Professional masseurs and masseuses on Earth could make quite a bit of money depending on their level of skill.” After our exchange of words we sat in silence for a few moments. I figured she was waiting for me to say something about the incident. “How about we just forget this whole silly thing Rarity? This can remain a secret between the two of us.” I said hopefully.

“I’d appreciate that very much Cicero. Thank you for being for being such a gentlecolt throughout this whole situation.” We looked at each other and smiled.

“Anything for you lady Rarity. Now if you don’t mind can we get back to the business we were trying to discuss before Sweetie Belle entered the room?”

“Absolutely. What was it you wanted to order?” Rarity said with relief evident in her voice.

“A couple things actually. First I want you to make a large circular piece of cloth that has a forty foot diameter. It can be made out of cheaper rougher material as I need it for working on Applejacks farm. I was also hoping you could cut one line into it starting at the center and ending at the side of the circle.”

“I can definitely do that Cicero but may I ask why you need it?”

“Because my apple bucking technique is a little messier than Applejacks and I need a tarp to catch and carry the apples.”

“Well then consider it done.”

“Excellent. Second I’d like some new underwear and socks if you wouldn’t mind making them.”

“Underwear and socks? Is that some type of human clothing?” She said confused. Oh yeah. Ponies don’t often wear clothing. I guess even if they wore clothing they probably wouldn’t wear socks and underwear anyways.

“I guess so actually. Socks are easy.” I held up a foot and took off my shoe. “Unlike you ponies humans don’t have hooves. So we use,” I held up a shoe, “to protect our soft feet. We also use this,” I wiggled my sock covered foot, “to stop our feet from getting blisters when in our shoes.” Rarity studied my foot for a few seconds.

“That seems easy enough to make. I could make a couple pairs of these. But what about underwear?” Well this is probably going to be awkward to explain. Considering what we’ve both just been through recently I can’t imagine it will be too bad.

“Well there’s really no way to delicately explain this to you so I’ll just be as clinical as possible. Based on your pink toy from before I can say that human males have penises similar to what stallions do. The two main differences are that we don’t have flairs at the tops of our penises and we don’t have sheaths that they can retract into when not aroused. This means that our reproductive bits are mostly left unprotected outside of our bodies. Underwear is a small form fitting pair of short we wear beneath our pants that protect our reproductive organs from dirt and chafing against our pants.” I finished with my description.

To my happy surprise Rarity had remained straight faced and listened intently throughout the whole explanation. I guess when things involve a request for clothing from her customers she gets very professional. I had discovered yet another reason to respect Rarity. “Thank you for being professional about that description. Now, do you think you could make me a couple pairs of stretchy underpants like I just described?”

She seemed to think if over for a minute. “It will definitely be harder to make these than your other two request but I think I can handle making a few pairs. I’ll make enough socks and underwear to match the sets of clothing I initially made for you.”

I sighed in relief. “Thank you very much Rarity. That was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.”

“Of course darling! I strive to make buying my clothes the best experience possible!” I gave her a wide smile.

“So how much do I owe you for this order?” She seemed to think hard about all the different things i’d asked her for.

“Considering all the different materials and new work I’d say 75 bits sounds fair.”

“Excellent.” I reached into my pockets and pulled out my money sack. Rifling around within it I grasped 150 bits. Holding the bits out to her she grasped them in her magic aura.

She looked confused and said, “Cicero I said it would cost 75 bits. This is 150 bits.”

I grinned back at her and said, “Because it’s you I know you horribly undercharged me to try and help out. So I figured if I gave you 150 bits that would probably come closer to the actual price.” Predictably she opened her mouth to complain like all the other ponies around here I tried to be generous with. I decided to speak over her by saying, “Twilight tried to deny my generosity earlier when I wanted to pay for food and rent. My response was to tickle her so hard that by the time she finally accepted my money she was on the floor spasming with giggles.” Rarity closed her mouth with an audible click.

“Good girl.” I said while smirking. “Now that that’s taken care of I’m afraid I must depart. I have some other things I need to accomplish by the end of today.” Rarity shook her head at my words.

“Very well Cicero. Let me walk you out then.” I grabbed my folded clothing and stuffed the last of my money sack back into my pocket. Following behind Rarity we went down the stairs and went to the front door. “Thank you the very generous amount of money you’ve given me for today’s order Cicero. I hope you have a pleasant day.”

“It was my pleasure Rarity.” I felt a devilish grin creep across my face. “Might I suggest you hide your pink toy before Sweetie Belle gets back?” Rarity coughed and looked away.

“Yes I’ll… I’ll be sure to hide it a bit more thoroughly this time.”

“Excellent. Well I must be off now. Have fun scratching those hard to reach itches with your new alien backscratcher.” To my delight Rarity blushed furiously at my words. “Hey you were wrong Rarity! You can still feel embarrassed!” I then walked out the door laughing at my own wit. A good couple of paces later I stopped laughing enough to remember that next on my list of things to do today was find a place to train in solitude.

*Grumble*. My stomach sounded off to let me know we had spent a long time at Rarity's and needed to eat. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my money sack. Looking into it I saw I only had about 20 or so bits left. Well I promised Pinkie Pie that I would come by her bakery when I got some money. I guess now is as good a time as ever. I didn’t know exactly where Pinkie Pie’s bakery was but I figured if I asked some of the ponies in town I could probably find it.

I started down the dirt path towards the center of the town. It didn’t take me much walking to find myself before the edge of the village market. As casually as I could I slowly walked out into town square. Just as before some of the ponies seemed to stop and stare while others only briefly glanced at me. I figured Applejack was probably around here in the market somewhere. I’m sure if I asked her she’d know where Pinkie Pie’s bakery was.

I started scanning the market looking for Applejacks stand but I caught sight of something that stopped my search. On a bench near the middle of town was a light green unicorn mare staring at me. Her coat, mane, and hair were all different shades of mint green with little streaks of white thrown in. It looked like someone had squeezed a tube of mint toothpaste and this unicorn had come out. While some other ponies had stopped to stare at me this mares stare was something else entirely. Eyes wide open and never blinking.

Alright what the hell is going on here. This mares stare is really starting to creep me out. I stared back to see if she would back off and look away. A solid minute of staring later her eyes never wavered from mine. Alright this is seriously starting to get weird. Maybe she’s just really interested to know why strange unknown bipedal creatures are walking around the town market. I guess I’ll just go over there and talk to her.

I started a brisk pace towards the minty looking unicorn. As I got closer I noticed a smile creeping it’s way onto her face. The closer I got the wider the smile became. Even weirder than that was the shaking. I hadn’t been sure from afar but as I got closer I could see the unicorn was shaking rather violently. Wait, is she shaking in fear? Why is she smiling is she’s scared. I stopped walking in confusion. As soon as I stopped walking towards the unicorn a frown made it’s way onto her face and she stopped shaking.

What the hell? Now she’s upset and no longer afraid. What on Equis is going on here. Maybe I should try directly acknowledging her. I waved towards the unicorn. As soon as my hand got above my head she finally broke eye contact and stared intently at my hand. The smile returned to her face and she started shaking even more violently than before. I was now even more confused than had just been. Alright I’ve had enough of this weird interaction. I’m just going to go talk to her directly. Jogging the rest of the way to the bench I stopped in front of the unicorn.

“Hi strange minty green pony. My name is Cicero,” I said jovially in an attempt to get her to calm down and talk to me. My words had the opposite effect as the unicorn was now practically vibrating in her seat with an impossibly wide smile on her face. I took a step back. The unicorn looked panicked when it saw me step away.

She opened her mouth, I assume to say something, but all that came out was a wheezed, “hhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaa.” I took another step back thinking that I might be dealing with a slightly crazed pony. My actions panicked her further and she started madly gesticulating with her limbs. Our interaction was drawing a small crowd as other ponies that had been walking by were now standing still and staring at us. I held both my hands up palms facing outward to show the crazed mint unicorn I didn’t want or mean any harm. Again this was the wrong thing to do.

At the sight of my hands the ponies eyes rapidly flickered between the two of them and she started crazily panting while drooling. Oh god…. I…. I think this pony wants to eat my hands…. I need to get out of here. I turned around and started rapidly walking away in an attempt to leave this strange situation behind me. Sadly it was not to be. The crazed unicorn had apparently grown tired of waiting for me to come feed it my hands and instead gave chase as I retreated. Oh hell no. I started sprinting in the direction I had been walking before.

The crazed unicorn hadn’t expected that level of speed from me and I quickly escaped from her line of sight. Instead of stopping I decided I wasn’t going to take any chances and just kept running. Right after I’d decided that I spotted Applejacks cart a couple of yards in front of me. Awesome, I can hide from the crazy pony over there. Rapidly closing the distance between me and Applejack I slid behind her cart and hid behind her legs.

“What in tarnation?! Cicero what on Equis are ya doing down there?” Said a very confused Applejack.

“SHHHHH! I’m hiding from a mad pony Applejack! You have to help me!” I said frantically.

“A mad pony? Here in Ponyville? What?” I didn’t answer Applejack. Instead I chose to point towards the way I had come. She followed my fingers direction and we both saw a mint green unicorn mare come barreling down the road. She skidded to a halt near Applejacks stand and looked around wildly to try and find me. She seemed to be getting irritated that she couldn’t find me. Not letting this stop her for long she picked a seemingly random direction and continued her frantic paced run from before.

After the mad pony had gotten far enough away Applejack said, “What in Celestia’s name was that all about? I don’t I’ve ever seen Lyra so agitated before.”

“So her name is Lyra? Well I don’t know what her problem is but i’m pretty sure that mad pony wanted to eat my hands!” I said unhappily.

“Wait. Lyra was the mad pony you were talking about?!”

“Well yeah! You saw her frantically running around trying to find me! She was drooling at the of sight of my hands earlier!” I said frustrated. Applejack laughed at my words. I raised my eyebrows in shock.

She noticed my wide eyed expression and said, “Sorry for laughing sugarcube but Lyra isn’t a mad pony. She’s a bit strange at times but she’d never do anything as insane as eatin yer hands,” Applejack finished before laughing again. I stared in the direction that Lyra had run off towards. While I’ll admit that it seemed strange for a pony to eat meat, let alone someone's hands, I still wouldn’t completely dismiss the idea. I’d heard and seen stranger things in the visions passed down from other protectors.

As she was now gone I suppose I should just return to what I had originally been doing.

“Well you seem to know her so I guess I’ll trust your judgement for now. Disregarding that strange occurrence do you know where I might find Pinkie Pie’s bakery? She mentioned that she was a baker at some bakery in town.”

“Oh you mean Sugarcube Corner! Yeah I know where it is. All you have to do is head that way, “she pointed NorthEast of her carts front, “and you’ll get there eventually.”

“Awesome. What does the bakery look like?” Applejack chuckled at my question.

“Trust me Cicero, you’ll know which building it is when ya see it.” That’s a strange way to reply to my question. Well Applejack hasn’t steered me wrong so far. I Guess I’ll just follow her directions and hope for the best.

“Alright then. Thanks Applejack.” I got out from behind Applejack and started to walked in the direction she pointed.

“Hold on a second Cicero!” She called before I got too far away. I stopped and looked over my shoulder at her. “I just wanted ta let ya know that we talked to some of the pony merchants that come around our farm. They all seemed pretty doggone happy to start taking larger cartloads of our apples. We’ll probably need ya ta get back ta buckin in three days or so.”

I started walking away again while I waved over my shoulder and said, “You got it boss! Just let me know when to start back again.” Turning to face forward I ventured forward towards Sugarcube Corners supposed direction. After a minute of walking I found it and realized why Applejack had laughed when I asked her what the building looked like. I figured she’d laughed because the building probably had a large banner proudly displaying its name in the storefront. What I found was that the entire store screamed the name Sugarcube Corner.

I was standing in front of a massive life sized gingerbread house complete with fake white frosting around the edges. The stored looked as if someone had ripped it from a world made of candy and dropped it right in the middle of Ponyville. I laughed when I saw the top spire of the house was a frosting laced pink cupcake. This was exactly the type of place I imagined a hyper person like Pinkie Pie would work. If the outside was this spectacular I can’t wait to see what the inside looks like.

I quickly made my way to the front entrance and walked in. My vision was assaulted with a wave of pink once I stepped inside. The windows, register, counter glass, treats, and even the ceilings crossbeams were all painted different shades of pink. Yet somehow rather than being gaudy it gave the place a very homey relaxed feel. I could see the store had many hoove made designs across its walls and tables. Someone had obviously taken great care when they’d decorated this store.

“Hello welcome to….. Sugarcube Corner,” someone said sounding very unsure. I looked over and saw a light blue mare with two tones of cotton candy pink in her hair and mane. Judging by her expression and hesitant greeting, my presence had caught her off guard. As I was used to meeting new ponies by now I figured I’d take the lead here.

“Hello miss. My name is Cicero. I’m looking for some delicious baked goods and my friend Pinkie Pie. She told me she worked here.”

“Oh you’re one of Pinkie Pie’s friends!” She said relieved. “In that case yes she works here. She’s currently baking in the kitchen right now. My name is Mrs. Cup Cake. I own and run this Bakery with my Husband. Would you like something to eat while I go get Pinkie Pie dear?” I looked through her counters pink glass to see what baked goods she had out right now. The selection appeared to be around the same that one would find in a normal human bakery. There was a lot to choose from.

“Your expansive selection is slightly overwhelming me at the moment. Does your store have a special or best selling item that you could pick for me?”

“But of course dear! May I present to you the Mrs. Cup Cake Cupcake!” She pulled out a pink cupcake smothered in white frosted topped with a red cherry.

“That looks wonderful! I’ll take one of those please.” She pushed the cupcake over to me with her nose.

“That’ll be 2 bits.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my money sack. Fishing out two bits I put them on the counter in front of Mrs. Cake who swept them into the register. “Just take a seat and enjoy your cupcake Cicero. I’ll go get Pinkie Pie now.”

“Thank you Mrs. Cake.” I grabbed my cupcake and went over to one of the open tables. Some of the other patrons cast a glance in my direction but went back to what they were doing after a moment. It’s a good thing I mentioned Pinkie Pie when I came in here. She seemed quite leery of me when I first came in. I guess it’s hard to imagine that anyone who was friends with Pinkie Pie could be a bad person. I pulled the wrapper off of my cupcake and leaned in for a bite.

Dang that’s a tasty cupcake! This thing is just as delicious as the ones Pinkie Pie brought to my surprise party. Man I’m not going to be able to go back to eating normal baked goods after all the delicious treats i’ve had here in Equestria. I wonder if Pinkie Pie or Mrs. Cake made this cupcake. Considering it’s bears the name of the owner herself i’d think she made it but who knows. I was drawn from my simple minded musings when I saw Mrs Cake enter from a door at the establishments back. Following right behind her was Pinkie Pie bouncing up and down rather than walking.

Pinkie Pie saw me and bounced her way over towards my table. “Hiya Cicero! Do you like our yummy dummy cupcakes?” She said smiling happily. I have to admit this girls cheery personality was pretty infectious. Just being near her I felt energized and a little happier than when I had come in.

“I love it! I’m not surprised that the bakery you work at also produces as amazing treats as the ones you gave me the other day,” I said smiling back.

“Hooray! So what brings you to sugarcube corner Cicero?”

“Nothing really. I was in town when my grumbling stomach reminded me I hadn’t eaten anything for a while. I remembered that I’d promised to visit your shop when I had some money. So here I am.”

“Well one cupcake isn’t going to fix your hunger! Come on Cicero we’ve got to get you at least 20 more!”

“Haha yeah right. Like anyone could eat 20 cupcakes in the same sitting. That’s insane.”

“You mean you don’t eat 20 cupcakes a day?” Pinkie Pie said completely shocked. I was about to call her out on her joke when I saw her face contained absolutely no hints of a smile. Holy shit is she being serious?

“Errr no. I don’t think anyone could eat 20 cupcakes a day and not die within the same year.” I said slightly concerned.

“I can! I’ve been eating at least 20 cupcakes a day for 5 years now!” She said proudly.

“WHAT!? That’s not just incredible, it’s impossible! I refuse to believe anyone can keep an attractive figure like yours and eat that many cupcakes every day!” Pinkie Pie giggled at my incredulity.

“Thanks Cicero! I think you’re super hot too!” She said, with a cheeky smile. Damn this girl was good. Not only did she take my compliment in stride but managed to return it without blushing. I’d already decided to stop hiding my newfound attraction towards these ponies. I wonder what would happen if I took this game a bit further. I was going to have to up my moves if I wanted to make her blush.

“So what’s the most cupcakes you’ve ever eaten in a day Pinkie Pie?” I casually asked. She thought about her response for a second.

“Probably about 100!”

I almost lost my composure at that response. 100 cupcakes?! How is that even possible? I’m going to have to put her claims to the test one day, but for now I’ll continue on.

“I have trouble eating more than 5 cupcakes a day at most. There’s just too much sugar. And no matter how carefully you eat them, you always end up a sticky mess. You must really like all that sweet, creamy icing.” I finished with a wink.

Pinkie Pie apparently recognized the game I was playing. She let her eyes droop and gave me a sultry stare.

I’d seen that look before. A lot of friends I’d gone to parties with had started acting real stupid once a girl gave them that look. But the few times i’d seen that look directed at me i’d never really felt anything. It’s not as if I didn’t understand what it implied, I just never felt any desire to act on it. But this time….. something about the way Pinkie Pie did it was different. For some reason it was bringing thoughts to mind that I wasn’t used to having.

“Oh the icing on the cupcake is definitely my favorite part. I can’t help but enjoy the smooth, sweet taste it leaves when I put it in my mouth.” Pinkie Pie leaned in close to whisper in my ear. “But do you know what I like even more than the taste of the cream Cicero?”

“W-what?” I nervously stuttered out.

I could feel the heat of her breath as she said, “Swallowing every last bit of it.”

I tried not to, but I couldn’t help myself. I looked down and blushed in defeat. She’d taken the innuendo I’d set up and turned it against me. Pinkie Pie, seeing that she’d won, leaned back and gave me a wink in return. A few seconds later I recovered.

“Alright I’ll admit you got me this time Pinkie Pie. You saw through my game and defeated me before I had a chance.” She just giggled at my words. “Anyways I don’t think I’ll be able to eat the insane amount of cupcakes for lunch that you described. Next time I get paid I’m coming back here and putting your crazy cupcake claims to the test. 100 cupcakes right? Think you can prove it?”

“You’re on Cicero!” She said determinedly.

“Excellent. Well Pinkie Pie unfortunately I have other things I need to do today.” I stood up. “One of these days I’d like to come back and try baking with you like we discussed before.”

“Okie Dokey Lokie! I can already smell all of the super sweet alien treats we’ll make together.” She said eagerly. I smiled and started walking towards the exit. Right before I made it to the door I heard her say, “Make sure you don’t wait too long before coming back to bake. I can’t wait to try your delicious alien cream!” I faltered at her words but refused to stop walking. I wouldn’t give her that satisfaction. Righting myself I kept walking and exited the building.

Stopping in front of the restaurant I smiled wide. Damn that girl’s cheeky. I know these feelings of attraction are new to me but I didn’t expect any of these seemingly innocent girls could make a fool of me. I guess if any of the girls would know how to mess with a guy it would be the energetic one who goes every party she can. I bet you she’s been to some crazy ones. I hope I get the chance to hang out with her more while I’m here.

For now I need to finally try and find a place in the forest for training. The easiest place to start searching the forest would probably be that place I exited, near Fluttershy’s cottage, my first day here. I remember you could see the forests edge from the path. Not wasting anymore time I exited town and followed the dirt path towards Fluttershy’s.

While I had never actually traveled from town to Fluttershy’s cottage I remembered each individual piece of the path that would get me there. Town to Rarity’s, Rarity’s to Twilight’s, Twilight’s to Sweet Apple Acres, and Sweet Apple Acres to Fluttershy’s cottage. It would take a while to walk there normally so I decided to use my cores energy and boost my speed. I started off down the dirt road at a steady jog. As I was nearing the path at the edge of Sweet Apple Acres that would take me to Fluttershy's cottage who should I happen to see but Fluttershy herself.

Remembering how easily startled she was I slowed my pace down to a walk. She seemed to be leading a group of small rabbits that were hopping behind here in a line. I wonder where she’s going? Once I got close enough I called out, “Hey Fluttershy.”

“EEP!” She jumped up in the air and flailed her legs wildly. Thinking quick I jumped over and caught her before she hit the ground.

“Hahaha, sorry I scared you fluttershy. I was just walking along the path and wondering why you were leading a group of rabbits behind you.”

“C-Cicero! I-it’s ok. I was just leading these baby bunnies to my basket so I could feed them.” she said quietly. I looked over across the dirt path and noticed there was indeed a wooden basket full of carrots lying on the ground. I looked down and noticed the little bunnies had scattered themselves in every direction. They must have panicked at Fluttershy's reaction to my sudden presence.

“Well it appears as though we’ve both scared your little friends away.” She looked around and saw the same thing I had.

“Oh no the poor little bunnies! I’m sorry little ones I didn’t mean to scare you! Please come back.” Fluttershy said looking very worried.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy. As I helped cause the problem I’ll help fix it.” I set her down. “Let’s round up these little guys and get them fed.”

“A-are you sure it’s not too much trouble? You don’t have to help if you don’t want to.” she said meekly.

“You’re asking me if I want to help you round up and feed adorable little bunnies? What sort of madpony would say no to that? I love bunnies!”

“You… you do?” Fluttershy said hopefully. I laughed. Reaching down I picked up one of the bunnies that hadn’t hopped very far.

“Fluttershy I’m pretty sure everyone loves bunnies. I mean how could you not? Look at this little cutie.” Reaching over I scratched the little bunnies head and ears. I could tell the bunny appreciated my efforts as it leaned into my fingers and started rapidly thumping one it’s feet against my hand. I smiled and kept going. Fluttershy gave me a face splitting smile as she watched me play with the bunny. After a few seconds she fluttered over to another bunny and used her hooves to pick it up.

Very carefully she gently flew it over to her carrot laden basket and gave it a carrot. The little bunny seemed very content to sit down and happily munch away at its carrot. I was about to follow Fluttershy’s example when I felt something jumping on my shoes. Looking down I saw a herd of bunnies hopping on and around my shoes. I guess they saw the pleasure my ministrations were bringing their little friend and wanted some too. Leaning down I scooped them all up and said, “Don’t worry little ones. I’ll make sure you all get a good ear scratching.”

Arms bursting with bunnies I walked over to the carrot basket and set them all down. For the next couple of minutes Fluttershy went around making sure every bunny was given a carrot and ate the whole thing. Meanwhile I was going around and giving each bunny a small head and tummy rub session once they finished their assigned carrot. I thought it was weird that Fluttershy was feeding the baby bunnies when I figured their parents would.

“Fluttershy not that I’m dismissing your work but why are you feeding these baby bunnies? Shouldn’t their parents be providing for them?”

“Well normally I would just give their parents the food and each bunny would be fed by their parents. Today I needed to get them all together and make sure each bunny is healthy. Looking over their bodies while making sure they eat all their food is a good way to check their health.” Ahhh so she had been checking that their appetites and bodies were healthy. Very smart. When animals become sick those are generally the first two categories that show symptoms.

Now that all of the bunnies had been fed and thoroughly scratched Fluttershy was lining them up again, I assume to be lead back to their parents. “Thank you for your help today Cicero. I think the bunnies really enjoyed getting scratched by you.” Fluttershy said happily.

“Anytime Fluttershy. I assure you I enjoyed playing with the bunnies as much as they did.” I grinned and said, “Not to mention I’ll never say no to spending time with such a cutie.”

“I’m glad to find somepony else thinks baby bunnies are as cute as I do!” She said in return. I laughed at her obliviousness. Fluttershy had a confused expression on her face as she looked up at me.

“Well I suppose I’ve definitely made my opinion on how cute these little bunnies are obvious. I was actually talking about you this time Fluttershy.”

Right on que Fluttershy blushed and let out a squeaky, “W-WHAT!?” This of course only made me grin wider.

“You see! Right there Fluttershy. That adorable little blush and reaction of yours only makes you cuter. Face if Fluttershy, these bunnies are cute but you’ve got them beaten in that department by a long shot.”

“I-I-I O-Oh M-My!” Fluttershy seemed completely flustered by my last compliment and quickly scurried off with the trail of bunnies hopping behind her. Man, even her exit is adorable. What am I going to do with all of these ponies melting my heart at every turn. I sighed. Well that was fun little detour but now it’s time to get back to the task at hand. I looked over in the direction Fluttershy had retreated. As she was now out of sight I decided it was safe to enter the forest. Using some of my cores energy I quickly reinforced my legs and ran off into the trees before someone could accidentally see me entering the forest.

I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for in a training area but I was hoping if I wandered around the forest enough I would eventually find something suitable. The only thing I knew for certain was that wherever I picked would have to be rather large semi open area. With this idea in mind I wandered deeper in the forest, further away from the dirt path I had just left. Blinding wandering on the ground wasn’t the most efficient way to search but until I got deeper into the forest it would have to suffice. Once I had walked for a good 5 minutes in the opposite direction of where I entered the forest I figured I was far enough away that no wandering pegasus would spot me.

I shifted a large amount of energy from my core into all parts of my body below my chest. After I had a steady flow of energy I crouched and jumped through the forest's canopy. As I traveled upward I realized that searching this forest would be harder than I thought. Even though the forest was flat it went sprawling for miles and miles in every direction. I couldn’t possible take in enough details while jumping to find what I needed. I hit the apex of my jump at around fifty feet in the air and started to rapidly descend. Looking downward I shifted my body and landed next to a tree.

Hitting the ground hard I made small imprints into the dirt where my feet hit. Damnit I really should have found a map in Twilight's library detailing how large this forest is. I sighed at my lack of foresight. Well there’s no use dwelling on that now. I’ll just have to improvise. The only way I would be able to take in enough details while jumping was if my mind was amped up on adrenaline. The draining effect of using adrenaline was something I tried to avoid but in this case it seemed like the best solution.

Stimulating my adrenal glands once more I felt the crisp clarify that came with steady flow of hormones to my body. I had planned on just jumping over and through the forest canopy. With my mind's extra processing power I realized it would be more efficient to jump in place, take in the forest, and then run in whatever direction I chose. Shifting my cores energy from my lower half into my entire body I quickly stabilized the flow. I would need to reinforce my whole body to withstand falls from these heights. Crouching low I snapped my legs muscles straight as fast as they could and shot out over of the forest.

Using my new adrenaline boost I let my eyes rapidly flicker in every direction trying to pick out somewhere suitable for training. At the very edge of my vision I noticed something directly West of my current position. As I hit my jumps apex of one hundred feet I thought I saw a strange clearing in the middle of the forest. I decided I would head towards it and investigate. Falling quickly I hit the ground and sunk about half a foot. I would need to make sure I jumped on steady ground next time. Looking to the West I readied my body and sprinted through the trees.

After what felt like six miles of rapid running I decided another quick position check was in order. Performing the same actions as before I crouched and threw myself above the forest canopy. As I reached my jumps limit I saw that I had made good progress in my running. As long as I kept going straight in the direction I had been I’d be there in about another six miles. Excellent. Hitting the ground I recovered quickly but didn’t immediately take off. I cut my cores stimulation of my adrenal glands and let the fatigue wash over me.

I wished I could keep my mental boost going but I’d seen what happens to protectors when they ignored their bodies limits. I remembered the vision of protector Derrick. While a very well balanced protector he had a tendency to push his body to the limit during times of crises. Protecting your people was important but if you killed yourself trying to do so then what was the point? Derrick had been trying to protect and direct his people's retreat at the same time. He had continually flooded his system with so much adrenaline that eventually his body couldn’t take it and he died of a heart attack where he stood.

I would not let myself make the same mistake. After recovering for a minute the fog of fatigue started to lift from my brain. Shaking my head I started weaving through the trees in the direction I had been going before. As I had guessed around six miles later I shot through a set of trees into a rather large clearing. Surprised by the rapid change in such a densely populated forest I came to a skidding halt. I felt myself slide much further across the dirt than normal.

I looked down and saw that the ground was now heavily compacted dirt and sand instead of the soft root filled dirt I had been running on just a few moments before. How peculiar. What on Equis could have caused such a strange phenomenon right in the middle of this lush forest. I looked around myself to see if I could gather any hints as to what might have happened here. Nothing immediately stood out as the obvious cause so I decided to jog around the clearings perimeter to see if I could identify something.

I jogged around the roughly eighty foot wide circle and started to notice strange things at the edge. A lot of the trees at the edge seemed to be slightly bent at awkward angles. I also started noticing rather large pawprints in the softer dirt near the edge of the circular area. I wondered if some large animals had come buy and cleared this area at some point in the past. Or perhaps this was their home? If so why is no one here? I’ve never heard of any animal species leaving their territory completely undefended. Most animals leave their young and food to be guarded in their home territory.

So if this wasn’t an animal's home what was it? I thought on this for a while and could come up with no obvious logical conclusions. I had a large list of speculations but no proof to back any of them up. I looked up into the sky and realized that the sun was starting to dip lower in the sky. I really need to get home before it gets dark. I wanted to start my training now but I realized that in the daytime there was still a greater chance of random pony seeing me than during the night. I could mark this location's position relative to ponyville and come back later tonight.

Happy with this plan I crouched and violently threw myself into the air. At the very top of my jump I could just make out Ponyville in the far distance. I estimated it was around ten miles away from this clearing. I fell back down and had a much easier time landing on the heavily compacted earth than I had in the forest. I turned toward the direction I had seen Ponyville while jumping and ran towards it. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the trees of the forest start to thin around eight miles into my run. At the nine mile mark I finally broke through the forests edge and onto open land.

I slowed to a walk and looked around for some obvious marking I could use to find my way back to the training ground during the night. Unfortunately it appeared as though nothing within a reasonable distance could easily be used. Deciding to improvise I turned back toward the treeline. Reinforcing and strengthening my arms I quickly broke three trees, at the forest's edge, in half. Walking back a few feet I realized it would be easy to recognize this spot if one was looking for it. Shifting the downed trees I make a crude arrow pointing in the direction of the forests training ground.

Pleased with my work I turned around and walked back towards town. After a quick jog I saw the edge of the town's market. I entered the mostly deserted market from the opposite direction I usually did when coming from Twilights. Looking up into the sky I saw the sun rapidly descending below the skyline of Ponyville. It would be hard getting used to the incredibly fast shift between night and day here in Ponyville. Ignoring this rapid light shift I started off at a jog towards Twilight’s house.

Arriving a few minutes later I stopped in Twilight's front yard. Focusing on my center I slowly stopped the flow of energy throughout my body. Once I released my steady energy flow my body let me know that it was incredibly hungry. *GRUMBLE* I hope Twilight and spike are having a feast for dinner tonight. My friends on Earth had always marveled at the amount of food I could eat and yet never put on any weight. A few of them had been rather jealous and always commented on how lucky I was to have such a fast metabolism.

Believe it or not my need to eat massive quantities of food after expending energy was more of an annoyance rather than a happy occurrence. Most of my friends had only seen me after I used small bursts of energy throughout the day. They had never seen my mother or I after one of her vicious training sessions. We had four full refrigerators in our house that were kept completely stocked at all times. I only had to dig into our massive food supply after mom would occasionally force me into one of her training sessions.

I had asked mom one day why it was we couldn’t just consume extremely calorically dense food. Humans ate energy bars and fast food all the time and those were riddled with compact calories. She had told me that during emergencies foods such as these were usually what she turned to. She then explained that over time her body and ergo mine were now very similar to humans. As such the healthier we ate the more energetic and efficient our bodies would be. Since she was much older and wiser than me I had always heeded her advice and attempted to eat as healthy as possible. Hopefully I could continue that trend in Equestria.

Now that my body was calmed down I decided that I had reminisced about my times on Earth long enough. Knocking on the door I only had to wait but a moment before Twilight swung it open and said, “There you are! I was worried you had gotten lost somewhere.”

“Apologies Twilight. I had a few things I wanted to do today and they took me longer than I had anticipated.”

“Well I’m just happy you’re back. Also you don’t need to knock on the door every time you enter my house. This is your home now as well.” I smiled.

“Thank you Twilight. It feels nice to have a home here, even if it’s only temporary.” Twilight frowned at my words. I had a feeling it was because she’d miss asking me questions and getting to record new things. I’m sure she’d get over it quickly. Plus I didn’t even know if I could leave this planet or was in fact stuck. Hopefully I could see the princesses soon and find out.

“So what’s for dinner Twilight? I’m absolutely famished!”

“I think Spike is making vegetable pasta tonight.” She said now smiling. Excellent. Vegetable pasta is an extremely calorically dense meal. Not to mention it’s rather healthy. “Hey Cicero. I was thinking….” Ahh shoot. Here it comes. I already know that no matter what she asks me for I’m going to say yes no matter what. Even if I want to say no she’ll just look at me with those big shimmering eyes and any argument I have will crumble like my will.

“Yes twilight?” I said resigned to my fate.

“Do you think we could have our invention session over dinner tonight? I really really want to get started as soon as possible.” Oh. Well that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

“As long as Spike doesn’t mind us talking over the meal he prepared I don’t see a reason why we can’t.”

“YES! Spike? Spike!” Twilight ran off towards the kitchen to ask Spike if he wouldn’t mind. I laughed as she went and slowly followed behind. As I entered the kitchen I saw Twilight jumping in triumph. I guess Spike said yes. “I’m going to go get my parchment, ink, and quills.” She said running out of the room. I kept smiling and kneeled down beneath the tables edge, waiting for Spikes delicious dinner. Spike put 3 plates and a massive pot of vegetable pasta on the table in front of me.

“Dinner is served!” He said.

“Thanks for the meal Spike. It’s smells great.” Spike smiled at me as Twilight came back into the room levitating a large amount of writing supplies.

“So what’s today’s invention going to be Cicero? Remember it has to be really technical!” Hmmmmm what could I safely tell her over dinner. Oh! I know a reasonably safe one I can give ponies.

“Twilight do ponies have machines that fly in the air?

“We have hot air balloons and some airships that float using large magic batteries. No other flying machines besides those two.” Magic batteries? Now that’s interesting. I’m going to have to ask her about that.

“Alright well i’ll make you a trade Twilight. I’ll teach you about the flying machines we have on earth if you teach me about magic batteries and how they work. Deal?”

“Deal!” she said joyously.

“Alright then. There are two limitations to what I’m going to tell you. First I don’t know the exact mathematical equations necessary to calculate a flying machines areodynamicy. I’ll have to give you a less specific overview of aerodynamics. Second I won’t give you the knowledge of the internal combustion engine. That’s something your people will need to figure out on their own. Trust me when I say this is for your own good.” Twilight seemed depressed when I finished speaking.

It didn’t take her long to get over it as she happily asked, “What’s aerodynamics?” I chuckled.

“Get ready for a long session.” Twilight's face lit up.

A couple of hours later, well into the night, Twilight had finally had her fill of questions and trotted off to bed. She mentioned she would formally write up all her findings tomorrow and that she might need me to clarify a few things. Naturally I said I would. She also kept up her end of the bargain and had explained the theory of magical gems to me. As I didn’t have magic I couldn’t understand every concept she explained to me but I did get the gist of it. Apparently certain crystals and pony made containers could store a multitude of different magical energies to be released later.

Naturally this led to me asking Twilight about the different types of magical energies. While some types of magic like natural magic and the elements of harmony are special exceptions most magic is defined by the casters intent when it’s used. This was reasonably bad news for me. Magic itself was already hard enough to deal with but now I had to take into account the different effects a user's intent could add to spells they cast. This means any strategy I developed to deal with certain ponies spells might only work with that pony.

I suppose this is only further encouragement to get back to a steady training regiment. Reinvigorated by this new knowledge I quietly crept up the stairs to the second floor. Twilight and Spike were already fast asleep in their beds. It was time to leave. Sneaking back down the stairs I silently excited through the front door, closing it behind me. With no distractions present I energized my legs and jogged towards the town market. I quickly reached the market and jogged through to the other end, thankfully not encountering any ponies wandering about.

Approaching the treeline of the forest I remembered I had asked Twilight what its name was during our invention session. She told me it was called the Everfree forest and that it was the one place ponies didn’t have to watch over the animals or plants for them to grow. Once she’d said that I had really wanted to ask her how their planet's ecosystem worked but she was adamant that we get back to the airplanes we had been discussing. I figured I’d just shelve that question until the day she asked me about Earth's ecosystem.

The moon was luckily just about full tonight and provided me with a lot of light to search for the trees I had downed earlier. A quick scan of the Everfree forests edge showed me the location of the three trees. Walking over to them I saw the crude arrow I had made was still intact. I made my way through the trees in the direction of my new training spot. After the same 9 miles I had traveled earlier I entered the open dirt and sand arena I had found before. Slowing down I looked around to make sure the area was still unoccupied as it had been hours ago. Thankfully my training spot was just as barren as I remembered.

I smiled. It was strange but I was actually looking forward to starting my training routine again. Back on Earth I had done everything in my power to avoid mother's brutal training sessions. I suppose now that I was here on Equis the idea of going through a semi regular training session brought me some sense of normalcy. If there had been one place I felt truly at home on Earth it was in my mother and father's presence. Even if father wasn’t a protector like mother and I he still understood me better than any of my human friends could ever hope to.

There’s no time like the present Cicero. Never waste the free time fate has given you. For one such as myself free time is few and far inbetween.

Mothers words passed through my mind. I had never appreciated all of the time mother spent protecting the humans. Once I had grown older I began to understand how many humans there were on Earth. Almost every day was a flurry of activity for her. Mother knew that she couldn’t protect them all but she still did everything possible every single day to help as many as she could. My mother was truly a paragon amongst protectors and one day I hoped to do her proud.

Preparing for my training session I completely disrobed and laid all of my clothing in a neat pile near the circle's edge. During one of my first training sessions with mother I asked her why we trained without clothing.

Why do you train naked? What were to happen if your enemy where to strip your clothing off your body during a fight? You would hesitate would you not? The humans have instilled in you the idea that nudity is indecent. This is simply a weakness for your enemy to exploit. If your enemy disrobes you in combat then so be it but I will not allow such distractions during our training. I will not allow you to become just another vision passed down to our people.

I laughed at how embarrassed I had been during my first training match. Eventually over time I realized how silly it was to care about such things in battle and grew out of my embarrassment. But now was not the time to reminisce. Now was the time to train. I wouldn’t be able to emulate the sparring matches I had with mother so I would have to improvise and test all three categories she had trained me in. First I’ll need to find a large boulder to practice with.

With this plan in mind I raised my head and froze in place. There at the other end of the circular clearing I saw a manticore emerging from the treeline. Well that’s a rather unfortunate stroke of luck…. Wait a moment…. I walked a few paces towards the manticore and raised my eyebrows in surprise. “No fucking way.” There in front of me stood the manticore I had drunkenly slapped my first night in the Everfree forest. It was easy to identify as it had a group of 4 human shaped claw marks across its massive nose.

I guess I had accidently used a bit of my cores energy that night and harshly scratched the manticore instead of just slapping it as I remembered. I’ll admit I felt slightly bad about scaring it but considering the manticore had tried to eat me first I felt pretty justified. The manticore had only managed to chase me away due to my inebriated state that night. I smiled. Tonight would be much different.

“Back for a rematch kitty?” I taunted. Strangely enough the manticore didn’t growl back at my words. In fact the manticore acted like it hadn’t heard me at all. The only thing that changed was it’s mouth. A wicked looking smile creeped its way onto the manticores face. That doesn’t look good. My assessment was proven correct not a few moments later when I noticed four more manticores emerge behind the first.

“Oh shit.” Apparently the manticore did remember our encounter and it had brought friends to help it get revenge. “I see you’ve brought friends.” I said obviously. The manticores eyes gleamed. “Too bad five of you still isn’t going to be enough.” Apparently the manticore could understand me as its smile got even wider. If it can understand me why the fuck is it smiling. That question was answered moments later as seven more manticores emerged from behind the others.

“Are you fucking kidding me!?” I yelled at them. This doesn’t make any sense! Why the fuck would twelve manticores suddenly appear now. I’d already determined this wasn’t any animals home territory earlier. Was it just an unfortunate coincidence? Wait… If they could understand my words maybe they're smarter than I gave them credit for. And then it hit me. The lead manticore must have seen me earlier and guessed I would come back. He fucking gathered eleven of his manticore buddies and waited to ambush me.

“You… You don’t just understand that I’m speaking do you? You can actually understand what I’m saying, can’t you?” To my terror the manticore nodded. These manticores were not the mindless beasts i’d assumed that they were. A look of panic flashed across my face.

“Gruhhuhuhuhurrrrr.” The lead manticore must have seen my panic and let out a growling laugh. Thankfully his laughing snapped me out of my panicked haze and I realized that panic was the last thing I needed to do right now. I took a few breathes and steadied my heartbeat. With a clear mind I realized the first thing I needed to do was attempt to reason with these beasts.

“If you can understand me then let me apologize for the other night in the forest. I was not in my right mind and attacked you out of fear that you wanted to eat me.” The manticore licked its lips and laughed again. Ok so that pretty much confirms he was trying to eat me. “I do not wish to fight you tonight. Is there not something I can do to to settle this peacefully?”

“ROOOOOAAAAARRRRRR,” came the deafening answer from the other eleven manticore. The lead manticore simply shook his head no. It appears he promised the others food and a fight tonight. I don’t think I’ll be able to get out of this without a fight. I tried to reason with him one more time. “Please. I do not wish to hurt any of you. I understand that you’re all hungry but I cannot allow myself to die. If you choose to fight I cannot guarantee you will all survive.”

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!” Apparently the manticores had had enough talking and the leader charged me. So be it. At least i’ll have a sparring partner for my training tonight. I rapidly descended into my core and forced a heavy flow of energy throughout my entire body. I reinforced all of my bones and used a layer of my energy to harden my skin to it’s utmost extend. Right before the manticore reached me I remembered back to my training.
The enemies you fight will be tough Cicero. As protectors we have a few advantages over most other alien races. So tell me my son, what do we fight with?

“WE FIGHT WITH OUR STRENGTH!” I threw my right first out and slammed it into the manticores face. Stopping the manticore cold I pushed with my legs and threw him away from me. *THUMP* it hit the ground hard but quickly got back up.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!” The manticores screamed. They were apparently not expecting me to put up a fight. I straightened my stance and prepared for the next attack. Two manticores charged me from the front swinging their claws powerfully. Dodging below the attacks I let them fly over me. Getting back up I charged one of the manticores and jumped to throw my body feet first into it’s chest. It let of a loud roar as it went flying. The other took another swipe at me as I used my right arm to block the paw.

It looked confused when it’s claws or strength didn’t break my arm. Bringing my left arm around I slammed my fist into it’s head and sent it flying. The other manticores roared furiously at this turn of events and began spreading out around me. The manticore I had kicked in the chest stayed down, breathing roughly. Unfortunately the one I’d punched got back up and started to surround me with it’s brothers. Quick as lighting two more manticores charged me from opposite sides.

Right before they collided with me I jumped above them. Both manticores eyes watched me fly above them. In their confusion they had forgotten to stop their charge and I saw them slam into each other. While they were dazed I spread my legs and brought both my feet down crushingly onto each of their backs. The two slammed into the ground as I fell off them and rolled away. Both manticores shakily got up a few seconds later, clearly incensed by my attacks. As I was watching the downed two the manticores realized I was distracted and three more decided to charge me. I quickly used my arms to block two of them while the third rammed me in the stomach with its head.

“OOOF!” I flew back and rolled across the ground. “Fuck.” These manticores were learning fast. I was going to have to step up my game before I became predictable. As I picked myself back up a scene from the sparring session with my mother flashed past my eyes. I remembered my mother overpowering me with one of her punches.

What are you doing Cicero? A protector is not a one trick pony. We have so much more to offer the world’s. No matter how strong you are there will always be a stronger opponent. What then do we fight with?”

“WE FIGHT WITH OUR SPEED!” I yelled into the night. Pumping a massive amount of energy into my legs. I quickly took off towards the manticore that had send me flying. A look of surprise crossed its face as I slammed my first into its chin. With the extra speed from my legs I wasn’t surprised when I felt its jaw break. One of the manticores that I had held at bay before reacted quickly to my presence and took a powerful swipe at me. With my enhanced speed I easily jumped out of the way. Its partner wasn’t so lucky. Taking a massive paw to the face I saw the attacking manticores claws sink into the others face and tear out a good chunk of it.

“RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” The manticore bled everywhere as it stumbled around before collapsing. Shit I was hoping to avoid any of them dying. This thought distracted me long enough for another manticore to jump behind me and rake its claw across my back. Even with my strengthened skin I felt large parts of my skin split and tear. I was sent rolling across the ground a few paces away. Using my roll to jump into a sprint I dashed towards the attacking manticore and grabbed it’s tail. Swinging as hard as my body would let me I threw the manticore into a group of three others that had been slowly approaching me.

The manticore barreled into them as I quickly followed his trajectory. Jumping up I used my knees to land as hard as possible on one of the manticores face. I felt its teeth crack and blood soak my knees. I grunted in pain as one of the mouths fangs sliced open a part of my leg. The third manticore had pushed it’s friend off of him and threw its massive scorpion tail at my location. Rolling quickly to the right I saw the stinger slam into the face of the manticore I had just been on. It didn’t even have time to howl in pain as the tail pierced it’s brain.

Learning from my last mistake I didn’t mourn this one’s death. I instead grabbed the offending tale and viciously yanked the manticore attached to it up and over myself. I brought my hands down as fast a possible and slammed the airborne manticore into the ground. I heard a satisfying crunch as the manticore slumped down and did not get back up. I could still see it breathing so I assumed i’d broken it’s spine. Well that’s four down and eight to go.

Looking over at the remaining manticores it seemed as though they’d evolved their attack pattern again. Four had spread their wings and were circling me as the other four did the same on the ground. Even as fast as I was right now they’d catch me if I tried to escape below or above. Before I had a chance to form a plan the manticores started to continuously attack. One on the ground would dive in and swipe at me while one above would swoop in hoping to take off my head. Before I could counter them another would take it’s place and pattern would begin anew.

After a minute of dodging I was growing tired of this. This weak thought caused me to slow just enough that one of the manticores swipes connected with my shoulder and put a nasty cut across it. At the same time two more on the ground simultaneously ran into me and threw me flying away from them. I was sent flying and my back slammed into a tree as its trunk broke in half. Falling to the ground I looked around dazed. My mother's training flashed before my eyes again. I saw her counter my rapid attacks as she grabbed ahold of me and slammed me into a wall.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING CICERO!? Why are you only fighting with your body? Do you not understand? WE ARE PROTECTORS! If we fail then those who depend on us die. You fail every single protector who has come before you and passed down their experience. We don’t have the luxury of failing. SO HOW CAN WE STOP OURSELVES FROM EVER FAILING? WHAT DO WE FIGHT WITH!?

Picking myself back up I bellowed into the night, “WE FIGHT WITH OUR KNOWLEDGE! WE FIGHT AS ONE!” I forced a massive amount of energy into my head and stimulated my adrenal glands for a massive hormonal boost. With this newfound clarity I finally started analyzing how I could end this fight.

Four enemies down with eight left. Their group attacks are proving problematic. I cannot allow myself to be surrounded again. I’ll need a powerful pinpoint strike to take each one out. I can only muster this kind of strength one at a time. I’ll need to separate or confused them. But how do I do that. I looked down at the ground and smiled. If my body was not enough then I would use the environment to enhance my attacks. There’s enough dirt and sand here to cause the distraction I need. Pleased with my plan I stretched my core to its limit as I further increased the flow of energy throughout my body.

Before the manticores had a chance to surround me again I ran over to one at the edge of the group. Sticking my hand in the ground I quickly pulled up some sandy dirt and threw it into the air. Keeping my hand on the ground I rapidly circled the manticores, throwing up as much sand and dirt as I could. Thankfully the manticores had ceased their attacks for now as they couldn’t keep up with my speed and strike at me. The flapping of the flying manticores was only making the situation worse for them. Eventually my actions were having the effects I desired as a miniature sand and dirt cloud enveloped the group of manticores.

Excellent. Now that I’ve dulled their senses and confused them I’ll need to draw them out individually. As I’d blocked most of their senses with sand and dirt, sound would probably be the easiest sense to exploit. I looked up and realized that 50 feet above the artificial cloud the air was clear. Picking my next move I stopped throwing the earth into the air and jumped over the top of the manticore group. Hitting the top of my jump I yelled out “OVER HERE ASSHOLE!”. Landing on the other side of the cloud I quickly continued my previous actions of pulling up dirt and throwing it into the air.

Eventually I saw one manticore take the bait and fly above the storm. I skidded to a halt and focused on the manticore above the storm. With as much strength as possible I pushed off the ground and flipped to throw myself feet first at the manticore. It turned to see me right as I shot my feet out and slammed into it’s head. Sadly I had misjudged the strength in my jump and ended up shattering the manticores head. As I fell I saw the manticores lifeless bloody body flop back into the dirty cloud below. I heard a manticore scream out in anger as I assume his brother's body had just fallen on him. Landing on the other side of the cloud I continued my previous actions of circling the group and throwing up dirt.

Further loss of life is unacceptable. These manticores may be violent but they are essentially innocent beasts. I’ll need to more accurately control my strength in further attacks. Jumping above the storm again I taunted, “Up here fuckface!” Another manticore flew above the storm to challenge my call. With significantly less power I again threw myself feet first into the manticore. This time I aimed for the chest. My feet made contact with the manticores chest as I felt bones break. I sent the manticore wildly careening towards the forest below it but was pretty sure it would survive its injuries.

Happy with this strategy I continually applied the same process to the remaining manticores until there was only one left. Landing after my last strike I stopped upkeeping the artificial dirt cloud and waited for it to clear. Not long after the cloud dissipated I beheld the same lead manticore from my first night here. Sighing I preparing myself for the last attack that would end this senseless violence. Before I could finish off the last manticore it did something completely unexpected. It bowed to me.

Well that’s definitely not the reaction I had expected. Fury, anger, and indignation were some of the emotions I had been prepared for but not a respectful bow. The manticore raised it’s head and looked back to me. There was nothing in it’s eyes but respect. What the actual fuck is wrong with this thing. I just killed a few of it’s friends and it doesn’t seem bothered in the slightest. Perhaps I could talk to it and figure out what's going on.

“You’re not angry with me anymore?” I hesitantly called out. The manticore shook its head no. “You do realize that I just killed and wounded a few of your friends, right?” The manticore nodded it's head this time. I don’t understand. Animals always fight or retreat. This reaction makes no sense. I suppose these manticores, or at least this one, seem to smarter than most animals i’m used to. And then it hit me.

I looked back at the manticore and said, “Your group follows the strongest don’t they?” It smiled and bowed again. Intriguing. What a strange way to end a fight to the death. I don’t really want to lead a group of manticores but if it stops them from attacking me in the future I’ll play along. “I do not wish to take over your group after killing several of its members. I wish to not be seen as an violent usurper by your pack. I only defended myself from attack.” The manticore cocked its head to the side as if it hadn’t understood me. Hmmm, maybe I need to make my intentions easier to understand.

“What I meant to say is perhaps now your clan and I can be friends? I just want to be able to walk through the forest without us attacking each other.” The manticore looked down for a few seconds. I was afraid I had confused it again. Before I could open my mouth again the manticore looked up and nodded. Excellent. “Well now that we’ve come to an agreement what is your name friend. Mine is Cicero.” The manticore turned its head to the side once more. Perhaps they don’t have names in their society. I tried to make my intentions more explicit.

I pointed at myself and said, “Cicero.” I then pointed at the manticore and opened my palms indicating I wished to know his name. No reaction from the manticore. Well either it doesn’t have a name or it can’t speak at all. Very well then. I need to refer to it as something. I guess John will do. It’s a simple enough name to remember. Again I pointed at myself and said, “Cicero.” I then pointed at the manticore and said, “John.” This time the manticore smiled and nodded at my words.

Well I guess that will have to do for tonight. That fight left me exhausted and I need to get home before I drop. “I’m going home for the night John. I suppose I’ll see you around the forest some time.” John nodded once more at me. I waved to him and jogged over to my clothing pile at the arena's edge. I wanted to put them back on but my body was covered in both mine and manticore blood. I’ll need to find somewhere to wash this off in the forest before heading home. I’d hate to have the same first day experience I had here in Equestria all over again.

Picking up my clothes I started jogging in the direction of Ponyville. At around the 5 mile mark I noticed something I hadn’t before. Off to the right was a rather large looking pond in the middle of a group of trees. Awesome, that’s exactly what I need right. Deviating from my standard path I ran over to the pond. Crystal clear water and not an animals in sight. Setting my clothes down I waded into the middle and submerged my body while scrubbing the blood away. The cuts on my body were tender but would hopefully heal soon enough. Maybe I can get some bandages from Fluttershy tomorrow.

Pleased with my clean body I exited the pond and shook as much loose water as possible off of me. Now that the danger was over I cut the rapid flow of energy from my core down to a much smaller amount. Preparing myself I calmed down and cut the flow of adrenaline to my brain. I took a few breaths as the exhaustion of the battle settled down on me. Now that my non critical senses weren’t being blocked my body reminded me that we needed to find food and sleep very soon. Agreeing I quickly slipped my clothes on and ran the last 4 miles back into town.

Almost in a trance I jogged through town and into Twilights house. Quietly I made my way over to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. I saw that the pot of vegetable pasta from dinner was still half full and sitting in the refrigerator. Like and animal I set it on the ground and ravenously devoured it using my hands. After consuming all the pots food I picked it up and set it in the sink. I was too tired to deal with it now and would take care of washing it tomorrow. Exhausted I slowly sneaked my way up to the third floor and entered my room.

I briefly considering meditating before bed but realized I would was too tired to effectively think of anything. All other thoughts would have to wait until tomorrow. I walked over to my bed and flopped down face first on it. I stopped the rest of my cores energy flow and few moments later I was fast asleep.

Perspective: Luna

What a wondrous night! The moon is nigh full and the stars are Twinkling down on all of Equestria's sleeping citizens. I used to hate the idea that all of my citizens slept through the night. My sister and Twilight Sparkle had shown me that even if Equestria’s citizens weren’t awake during my night they still appreciated my work. How could they lay down and rest with my sisters overbearing sun shining down upon them at all times? While my night rule garnered less attention than my sisters day I was ok with being silently appreciated by my citizens.

I truly wish it had not taken 1000 years of banishment and the elements of harmony to save me before I could realize this simple fact. So much time without my sister and citizens wasted by my foolishness. I looked down in sorrow. No! I would no longer wallow in sad past matters. I need to look forward and remember happy things. Perhaps a trip over to Ponyville would brighten my mood tonight? I have always enjoyed flying around the quaint town of Ponyville during the night.

Spreading my wings I took off from my rooms balcony and quickly soared towards ponyville. Using powerful strokes of my wings I easily reached Ponyville in a few minutes. Flying lower I saw Twilight's library and smiled. While my sisters protege could be socially awkward at times she was a rather intelligent unicorn and always had excellent ideas. She and her friends had helped me so much since I had come back from my banishment. They had shown me that there were those who still trusted and followed me despite my rather long hiatus from ruling. I was truly grateful such ponies still existed in the lands of Equestria.

Soaring higher I flew towards the edge of town to check on the Everfree forest. I remembered a long time ago how incredibly dangerous the Everfree forest had been. While it still posed a threat now it wasn’t nearly as dangerous as it had been before I was banished to the moon. Creatures used to come out of the forest at night and hunt ponies for food. My sister assured me that this was not the case anymore but I still worried for Twilight and her friends. Loosing them to the wild beasts of the Everfree would be truly horrible.

“We fight with our strength!” What on Equis on was that? I had heard somepony yell from within the forest. If any pony was out here at night then they were surely in mortal peril! I must find them quickly. I flew off in the general direction I had heard the call come from. I frantically searched for any sign that a pony was moving throughout the forest. Where are they!

“We fight with our speed!” The voice was closer this time. Hold on my little pony I’m coming! Quickly flying towards the voice I began to see the outline of a strange open area within the forest. As I rapidly approached the open area I saw eight manticores circling a small figure in between them. To my horror I saw two manticores viciously strike the little figure and send it flying into a tree. The tree cracked in half as the figured slumped to the ground.

“NO!” I screamed. I flew as fast as I could toward the downed figure. However once I got close enough to actually see the figure I quickly halted my flight. This wasn’t one of my little ponies. This was something I’d never seen before. A strange bipedal figure lay on the ground beneath the tree. Its impact had snapped the trunk in half. Wait a minute. This must be the strange creature Twilight Sparkle found recently! What is it doing out here this late at night? Doesn’t it know how dangerous the Everfree forest is!? I shook my head. Enough of these thoughts. He may not be my subject but he still needs my help. Wait….. Is he getting back up after that attack?

“WE FIGHT WITH OUR KNOWLEDGE! WE FIGHT AS ONE!”

For the next 5 minutes I watched the creature Twilight had spoke of systematically destroy the remaining manticores. He moved with speed and struck with strength I knew was impossible for any normal creature to achieve. I saw him employ devious tactics to confuse and disorient his opponents. What surprised me the most were his savage strikes. I watched as his kick completely destroyed the head of a manticore that had flow above him. He seemed to regret killing the creature as his following strikes were all to a less powerful degree and now aimed at the manticores chests. The power behind his kicks still damaged the other manticores enough that they might not recover.

Finally he stopped moving and it was down to him and the last manticore. Sister needed to be informed of this now. Any creature that could take down that many manticores simultaneously was a threat to our ponies. I wouldn’t condemn him without meeting him but sister and I needed to confront him soon. He readied his stance to attack the last manticore. I feared he would violently destroy the last manticore and I didn’t want to see it. Focusing my power I teleported myself back to the castle. I need to wake Celestia up now.

Perspective: Unknown

Finally I’d escaped my horrid earthen prison but now I needed to find Celestia and Luna. I remember their filthy mother and father had thought themselves wise rulers and lived in castle known as Canterlot. I had been wandering through this damn forest for days and hadn’t encountered any signs of the wretched pony races existence. Perhaps they had been wiped off the planet by some event during my imprisonment. What joyous news that would be. Though a part of me would miss not being able to tear the flesh from their bones myself.

Finding the edge of the forest I exited the veritable maze of trees I had been stuck in. The open landscape was bathed in the moonlight's glow allowing me to see for miles in every direction. Looking around I noticed a small village in the far distance. Perhaps I could infiltrate the town and learn the location of canterlot relative to it. Hopefully I could find a larger settlement rather that puny pony village. I didn’t want to use my magic unnecessarily but I needed to find out where I was.

Enveloping myself in a magic aura I quickly floated a mile into the air. I scanned the landscape until I beheld my prize. Canterlot. What luck that I would emerge from this horrid forest to find my destination so close by. I was surprised to see how similar canterlot looked to how it was thousands of years ago. Memorizing Canterlot's direction I slowly lowered myself back down to the ground. Smiling, I continued on my journey to Canterlot. I would have my revenge.