Redux: Lineage

True to her word, Luna didn't take too long to brew up the rejuvenation potion. It took her no longer than three hours to gather all the ingredients from a local alchemist shop, then cut, crush, simmer, and mix all of them into the sparkling vial of green liquid. She held the vial out in front of me with a smile, a glint in her eye that showed her pride at being such an accomplished alchemist.

"Ta-dah!" she said, holding it aloft.

"Very impressive," I said, giving her a small applause before looking at the green fluid. "It set you back much?"

"Not for me," she shrugged, tucking the vial into a pouch on her belt. "It'd break the bank for most people, but I've got so much money on hand that it's officially classified as 'stupid rich'."

"So what are the chances of me having to pull some fetch quest for Angie before she's willing to help?" I asked, following after Luna as she headed out of the room.

"What's the alcohol percentage of high-end whiskey again?" she asked, patting me on the shoulder.

"Great," I sighed, rolling my shoulders and cracking my neck as we headed down the stairs, seeing the other three sitting at the inn's dinner table and eating food.

"You guys off somewhere?" Zane asked.

"Gonna pay back a favour," Luna nodded. "Should end up getting a new fighter in your team. Feel like tagging along?"

"I think I'll pass," Zane said with a shake of his head. "Thanks, though."

The other two gave similar responses: Annerose needing to take a shower and Grael wanting to rest his paws for the rest of the day; it seemed it was a family trip for Luna and I. We bid the others farewell before we headed through the streets to the Hunter's Guild.

"Where's Lot keeping herself now?" I asked, not having seen the Elf in a good while.

"She's got a room rented on the other side of the city," Luna answered, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder to the western districts. "She's more than exhausted after today."

"I don't blame her, to be honest," I nodded.

"I'm quite surprised you're on your feet after today," Luna commented. "You didn't exactly get a gentle handling."

"I didn't get a particularly rough one either," I shrugged. "The others got it worse than I did."

"Fair enough," she said with a nod, looking around the streets of the city. "Hey, what do you say to a family vacation when we're done here?"

"What, just you and me?" I asked in a confused manner.

"No, all of us," Luna said with a chuckle. "Your Mom and Dad, Celestia, Twilight, Grae, and I. I get the feeling that there's gonna be a celebration planned for you when you get home, so maybe we can cut out the function part of it and go abroad somewhere?"

"Where'd you have in mind?" I asked her.

Luna placed her hands behind her head as she walked, running the ideas of different places to go through her head.

"I'm not sure really," she said after a moment. "We've always picked where to go. Maybe it's your turn to decide a place to go to?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked with a chuckle. "I'd probably pick the shittest place on the planet."

"Nonsense," Luna said, immediately throwing my self-doubt of the window. "I'm sure you know of a few destinations you've always wanted to visit. The seaside, mountains, big cities. You've gotta wanna go somewhere, don't you?"

"I..." I began, running through places I'd learned about over the years through my head, sifting through several places that might hold a place of interest or something I'd want to see, but not finding anything particularly interesting for me. "I can't think of anything right now."

"Then don't worry about it just yet," Luna said. "We've still got a while till we get home, so you can think of it on the way back. That sound fair?"

"Yeah, that sounds good," I nodded, seeing the large Hunter's Guild come into view as we rounded a corner.

"Perfect," she smiled, looking at the sign above the door. "Let's go see if the old girl's awake, shall we?"

We headed into the Hunter's Guild, where Luna drew mass attention as soon as she entered the building. The pub chatter and clinking of drinks died down, and the only sound in the room was that of the door closing behind her. Seconds ticked by in such a slow manner that it made me feel somewhat awkward. Luna crossed her arms and looked around the room with a cocked eyebrow, a small smirk soon creeping onto her face.

"Well?" she asked the whole room. "What the hell kind of welcome is this?"

Upon her saying that, the room erupted into loud cheers and applause as everyone dashed over to the dark-skinned Alicorn for hugs and handshakes; everyone in the room seemed more familiar with Luna than I did at this point. I stepped away from the bumrush she'd set off, walking to the other side of the room to wait out the storm only to hear the sound of more thunderous footsteps. My eyes glanced over to the staircase as more and more hunters rushed over to the princess, eager to greet her.

I sat down at a table, kicking my feet up on a chair on the other side of it and made myself comfortable, seeing Luna smiling, laughing, and talking with so many different people that it seemed nearly impossible to keep track of them all, but she seemed more than capable of addressing every face with a name and a conversation topic.

"I gather you're used to this kind of thing?" a familiar voice asked me as it took a seat at the table.

"Yup," I said, smiling at Angie as she sat down. "Used to get bummed out by the fact nobody ever noticed me when I was younger, but I realised how much better it was to be unremarkable."

"Just wait until you get a few accomplishments under your belt," Angie chuckled. "Then everyone is going to be treating you the same way... so, what brings you and the old girl back here?"

"She's here to give you that rejuvenation potion she owes you," I said, placing my hands behind my head and resting on the chair. "What's the story behind that?"

"We made a bet-slash-favour between the two of us about a year ago," Angie answered. "I helped Luna track down a few renegade demons and she promised-slash-bet me that I couldn't take more down than she could."

"What did the score come to?" I asked.

"Seventy-sixty nine," Angie said with a proud smile. "And I stole the last one from her."

"Rather devious," I chuckled.

"It was all in good fun, though," Angie said with a nostalgic smile on her face. "I'm glad to see she's finally gotten off her prissy little throne and decided to come through with her part of the bet."

"So what are you planning on doing when you're young again?" I asked her.

"Well... if it's not a problem with you," Angie said. "I was hoping I could tag along with you and take down the Manticore?"

I turned to look at her, cocking my eyes as the old woman who stared back at me with a glint in her eyes and a wide smile.

"I don't see why not... but..." I said, leaning forward and whispering to her. "If you're up for a bigger prize, my friends and I are trying to track down a Narrowscale dragon, and I think you'll be more than helpful in taking it down."

Angie was silent for a long moment, a look of shock on her face at the sheer scale of the challenge before another wider grin spread onto her wrinkled face, excitement lighting up in her eyes and shaking in anticipation. She nodded eagerly, almost too hard for her old body to take, before speaking again.

"When? Where? Why?" she asked, bursting at the seams with an eagerness to fight.

"I'll tell you when you're sorted out, okay?" I arranged. "Just when the din's died down."

"Alright, fine," she nodded. "Now, if you’ll excuse me, I'm gonna go get sorted out."

With that, she rocketed over to Luna, seemingly enhanced by her own magic, and dragged the blue-haired Alicorn away from the crowds, catching me by the cuff of the collar as she came back, and dragged us both up the stairs. Once we were all in her office, she turned to Luna and held out her hand, eagerly-twitching fingers outstretched.

"Come one," she said, grinning widely. "Give it up."

Luna smirked silently, fishing the potion out and handing it to the much smaller woman. She swilled the green mixture around in the vial for a long second, being able to see straight through the glowing concoction, before she uncorked the vial and gulped it down.

"Here's hoping I simmered the Velvet Toad's liver properly, or else your organs are gonna shrink into nothingness," Luna chuckled.

Angie responded by waving Luna's joke away, finishing the four-inch vial in a mighty gulp and shaking in revulsion from the flavour. She stood still for a long moment, eyeing her hands and feet with anticipation as a faint glow began to cover them, spreading out from her core and soon bathing her entire body in a warm, golden light.

"Ah, so the temperature was right after all," Luna commented, resting against the wall as Angie's small, frail form began to morph and change as it was covered by the light, completely obscuring her from vision as it did so. There was a loud tearing of fabric heard from underneath the light, Luna's eyes widening in a realising manner before sheepishly scratching the back of her head.

"Oh yeah... I forgot about that," she said.

"What?" I asked, turning to look at her.

"Angie, or Angela as she's probably going by again, was about a foot taller in her youth than she was at the age she is now," Luna commented. "Not to mention the fact that she wasn't the, uh, flattest woman I'd ever seen. I probably should've gotten her a change of clothes, as well."

"Do you want me to turn around?" I asked. "Show a little respect?"

"Nah, she won't mind," Luna said with a shake of her head. "If anything, she'll be overjoyed that she's attractive again."

"Right," I said, watching the glowing light seemingly harden over Angela, forming into a golden casing that soon exploded outwards, the shards disappearing as soon as they left her body and revealing the newly restored Guild Master. Luna hadn't been lying, either. Angela had grown over a foot taller, now being half an inch taller than me, and was packing assets. Her body, much like Luna's, was covered in small-yet-defined muscles gained through years and years of hard training.

Not only that, Luna also hadn't been exaggerating about the size of her breasts. Her enormous, soft-looking rack was in great contrast to her muscular form, but took nothing away from her amazing figure and drool-inducing attractiveness. Her once cold grey hair was alight with bright yellow life, her old, ratty ponytail now replaced with thick, flowing locks dangling down to the middle of her back with her fringe falling over one eye. Her dull eyes were a vibrant emerald green, seemingly glowing with beauty and power as Angela looked down at herself.

She too seemed to notice her shredded clothing, but seemed nowhere close to embarrassed about being exposed in such a manner, going so far as to tear the shredded remains of her old robes off and really put everything on display, right down to her bare-shaved nethers. The newly-restored Angela performed a few basic movements and stretches, trying to see if anything didn't flex right only to find that she was in perfect working order.

"So?" she asked in a much younger, softer voice. "How do I look?"

"Twenty five and beautiful," Luna said giving her a thumbs up. "It's so great to see you without a support bra after all these years."

"But you're used to hanging around old crones anyway, I need the opinion of a young, horny teenager," she said, waving Luna's opinion off.

Okay then.

"Tell me, Richter," she asked, batting her eyelids at me. "Do I strike your fancy?"

I decided that it would be best to be honest with her at this point. It seemed only fair after getting nearly a hands-on tour of this warrior woman's perfect body, so I just went all out with it.

"In every way possible," I nodded, grinning eagerly.

"Perfect," she said, grinning proudly. "Now... what was this about a dragon?"