Diamond Tiara had slowly adjusted to her new life. Things had gotten better, or at least had changed, at home. No mom to needle her anymore and a dad that had become even more protective of her. It was rather nice in theory, but the stump that her right back leg was now, and her mom being dead, and everypony in town pitying her for what happened- those were all downsides to this. That was infuriating and so very annoying to handle.

She carefully slipped on the sock that let her strap on her prosthetic. The glinting pink gemstones and silver metal actually was sort of fashionable for one of these things and, even if she didn't completely want to admit it, Silver Spoon and her family did a great job on her new leg. It was more of a fashion statement than the basic horrors that the doctors had shown her- vague scraps of metal that accentuated every hint of 'I don't have a leg' or whatever sad story she didn't want to be seen as. It didn't look like somepony had just thrown together a hunk of junk. It flowed from her, and she could actually feel some sense of touch off of it. Silver had mentioned one day that Sweetie's sister and Twilight had looked at it to do some weird magic stuff to it, and the feel of it definitely hinted at their deft touch.

She took a few tentative steps and winced slightly since she was still getting used to not having one of her legs. Sometimes it felt like it was still there in the corner of her mind, all normal and perfect compared to what it was. Sometimes she felt a phantom itch that she couldn't scratch. And other times she just wanted to be normal in the full-length mirror that she stared at each day.

She put her books carefully in her bag and hobbled herself to her door. She had spent the last month in the hospital under a regimen of physical therapy that she wouldn't wish of other ponies. She felt exhausted each day after she made incremental hard-won progress, and now she could get back to her regular life and while she had practiced walking with the leg a few times, there was a sense of unfamiliarity that permeated her walk. It made her feel slightly exposed and worried about how everypony would react to her.

That was one niggling though that gave her pause. Her past actions making fun of ponies that didn't fit her perfect view of the world- the slightest imperfection, the stutter in words, the inability to fly. Things that could be fixed with effort, or not, were mocked and ridiculed mercilessly each and every chance she had. And if Diamond met that past version of herself, she would also now be mocked for something that she had had no choice in.

She breathed out, careful to not have her first day back be completely ruined by that thought.

She hobbled her way through her house, careful to slow down on the stairs as she hadn't completely got the hang of stairs yet with her new addition. She got it in theory, but practice with her three hooves she had all her life and the shiny metallic one that felt like it had a mind of its own when she let it work on autopilot, that was going to take time and effort.

She silently cheered as she reached the bottom of her house with no real issues. Slow and steady progress was still progress. She walked to the kitchen and threw some snack bars in her bag. Her mother never was one for breakfast and even with her gone, Diamond followed in her hoofsteps- though she wanted to be as dissimilar as what her mother became in the end. Twilight had told her explicitly that that hadn't been her mother, not exactly, explaining in excruciating school-like detail in the spell used, its effects, and all that mess. Still Diamond didn't want to ever be like her mother in that moment, the cruel eyes that had stared at her full of hatred, the robotic need for something unknown. And yet, she worried in the deepest part of herself that maybe she could fall into that. Aunt Screwball had been changed once Discord came to town by no fault of her own. She shivered and let that thought die by furiously shaking her head. She had been left with her thoughts too long.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, Diamond hurried out of there. She knew that Silver was used to waiting for her. She had replayed a lot of the interactions of her best friend in her head. It gave her something to do in recovery, and she discovered she had taken her friendship for granted.

No longer, this was a new and slightly improved Diamond.

***

Rarity stared up at the myriad different spell matrices hanging in the air, letting each tapestry of magic fill her senses with its woven sense of purpose. She had slowly acclimated to Canterlot in fits and spurts. Especially in the beginning when Twilight dropped the whole 'going to war' mess and she was formally and forcefully invited. Those had been a fraught few days with every single mess upending her life had caused. She had gotten more used to the odd unicorn shut in though, each mage in their own way unique and almost similar to one of her own customers in their odd foibles and oddities. While this was no soiree or garden party, the magical wing of magisters was rather erudite and nice to be around- except for one loud and uncomfortable exception.

Moondancer had taken some getting used to, her focused red eyes staring directly into Rarity's being and the red gem pulsing in time with the black unicorn's heart. Garish design of a coat, though Rarity had to let that sense of fashion go with how it was forced on her by Starlight. Absolutely atrocious choice that was if any picture of the mare that Twilight had had anything to go by. At least her mane looked nice, dark red and purple stripes worked with most coats.

"What are you thinking about, Rarity?" Moondancer's voice echoed through the Canterlot Archives, the old stonework giving her cold voice a natural amplification as she spoke.

"Nothing. Just trying to figure out why I'm still here. Nothing much a dressmaker can do in wartime if I can be truly honest."

Moondancer smiled ever so briefly. "Don't sell yourself short. You have a good reputation with the rich, or at least a decent one compared to me." Moondancer laughed, she had hated going to any party that interrupted her research and actively played the hermit when parties were forced on her. The hurt of Twilight skipping out on her friendship party had stung for years and she hadn't dared to replicate the experience. "And you are smart with applied gem theory and magic weaving if any of the samples of your work told me anything of true importance. You also forget about your little escapade in Ironhoof, the reports do tell of you being rather capable with diamonds."

Rarity stammered in confusion. "W-well that doesn't mean I'm able to become. . .what did you call it. . .a battle mage or whatever nonsense you thought of. That's preposterous. I'm a dressmaker, not a fighter."

Moondancer stared coolly at Twilight's friend, careful to trace every line and curve of her in her mind. She was right, she wasn't a mage worth speaking of, but there was a quality of her magic, not quantity. She was no Twilight, that was for sure, her magical aptitude skewed more into creative application and simple, quick solutions, not large-scale laser beams or high tier spells. Though, Moondancer chuckled to herself, she was comparing Twilight to this Rarity. Apples to oranges- a genius, young alicorn with potential and an above average unicorn with barely any magical training outside of the basics of levitation and a few other spells she knew.

"True, but you do have potential. And anyway, if you somehow fail this training session, I guess we can just use your genius designs for armor and the like. So, you actually don't lose out. You lose a few pounds of weight in my carefully crafted training program with Fleur and I, or you make armor. Win-win."

Moondancer waited. She had read copious reports on Twilight's friends. She had carefully edited the Friendship Journal into a best-selling book in Equestria. She knew most of the odd foibles and slanted views of these ponies in theory. Putting it into practice though was so much more difficult, craftier, and annoying to do. If there wasn't a time limit they were fighting against, she might have been nice about it. And Rarity seemed to have one foible about her looks and how fashionable she was.

"Fine." Rarity gritted her teeth and sighed. Hopefully Applejack was having more fun that her right now.

***

Applejack felt airsick. She was an earth pony and she rather liked the ground. It rarely moved. Maybe it was her pregnancy or some other unknown reason, but she stared down at the fast-moving ground from aboard the Dasher and felt a headache coming on. She pulled back from the edge of the deck and sat down, staring at the wood planks that kept her from falling to her death. "Are we there yet?"

Bon Bon and Lyra popped their heads out of the nearby cabin, the pair staring at the airsick pony. Lyra piped up first as they walked out the door. "I mean it's going to take a while to get to Silver Shoals. Maybe an hour or two."

Applejack groaned in protest as she stared up at the sky. "Why am I even here? I ain't a monster hunter anyway. Celestia, this is stupid."

Bon Bon stared out at the land of Equestria as she walked carefully on the deck. She wasn't used to airships either, and M.A.R.E had been a rather secretive organization with monster hunting so it was odd being so open and free with the mission. She stared out at the wall of white snow and ice on the corners of Equestria, a near impenetrable barrier of ancient magic that Celestia had let loose. The weather hadn't turned fully to winter yet due to generations of slight touches of pegasi magic, but she could see the broiling rage of the winter on the horizon. "Celestia thought it best for you to be somewhere out of the way. Monster hunting was an afterthought. Though I could teach you a few tricks of the trade, defensive measures, slight moves that make your condition less of a burden. How to handle a firearm."

Applejack glared at Bon Bon for a moment. "Not a burden. Just sick of boats. So, this varco-whatever why are you wanting it?"

Bon Bon uncomfortably fidgeted. "Varcolac. Large wolf like demons originally from the plains of Tartarus. I want a few of them because if we have to fight against the masses of the Storm King, having some unknown factors would be nice. So I've come up with a list of magical creatures to gather- mostly from the old M.A.R.E database of dangerous creatures and came up with the easy list of 'dangerous, but trainable ones'. I mean I'm not going to get the death worms of the steppes or anything like that. Just completely manageable ones like rocs, werewolves, bone spiders, elementals, and the like. Simple ones."

Lyra smiled as she listened to Bon Bon's carefully reasoned plan. "And we get to punch them and gather them up. Certified monster hunters."

Bon Bon rolled her eyes. "Minimal punching please, some of these creatures are very hard to take down the brute force way, Lyra. Which is why we had to seal some of them away in Tartarus. Would have worked if Tirek hadn't broken the doors off the place and trashed Equestria that one time. Made M.A.R.E look incompetent when we had demonic creatures eating towns for fun. Paperwork nightmare. I mean on top of the loss of life thing, but triplicate filing is terrible."

Applejack grimaced as she tried not to be sick at the thought.

***

Twilight carefully ran through the checklist of things to smooth over this odd time in the Everfree. Celestia had given her a quick idea of what to expect from the deer after Nightmare Night's fiasco of an introduction and she was sweating bullets at the thought of that repeating. Aspen had been at least somewhat receptive in trying to fight on the same side once the complete story had been unraveled and unfurled. Though he was definitely frosty towards Moondancer- which was to be expected- and Ponyville had acclimated to having an entire race of odd magical deer about as well as she had hoped. Which was not well, but at least tacit acceptance was almost easier to handle than Ponyville's worrying animosity towards outsiders at times.

Twilight carefully did her breathing exercises, years of practice helped calm her nerves just a little. It had been a tense few weeks and just now did the political turmoil of it all cool enough for a diplomatic mission. At least Luna was here to guide her through some of the odder things that could happen.

The still small blue alicorn walked out of the dense forest with Aspen right on her heels. "Ready, Twilight?"

Twilight was born ready. She had dreamed of finding a civilization and doing some first contact type research in theory- the idea of papers being formed and slowly written as she documented the customs of the deer fascinated her. The reality that they were living breathing creatures instead of some old mare's tale or ancient footnote in Starswirl's texts was just so tantalizing to her. "Ready."

Twilight cantered through the thicket of trees that hid the deer village from most of the Everfree, she was assailed by the myriad colors of the leaves in the trees, the feeling of powerful magic wafting through the air, the sounds of deer just living their lives. It was a mess of emotions the young alicorn felt- she felt like she was a foal in a candy store.

"So, we have a few things to talk about, you two." Aspen walked regally through the Thicket, his white coat standing out in the noonday light that was filtering through the canopy of trees. Twilight almost saw him as a ghost with how he slid through the bustling and active deer haven, his steps focused on the destination ahead.

Luna quickly poked Twilight in the side. She knew the look the purple mare had, and she had better things to do than rehash some rather painful memories of the past. "Such as?"

Aspen glanced over at Twilight and grinned ever so briefly. It had been a while since ponies were let in the heart of the Everfree- most of the ones that had tried before had walked into a trap or were turned around by the spells of the bonesingers, their magic casting a wide net of confusion around the Thicket to deter visitors. "This whole adding our braves into your fighting force. Seems a bit odd to me and some of the elders aren't very. . .receptive towards such a plan. Hard to link up with an enemy that has done unclean dealings with us in the distant past."

Luna knew this might be a problem. "Well, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Or whatever that little maxim Celestia goes on about says. Do you need reaffirmation that we aren't going to burn down the forest? Or something to that effect. Because my dear sister would love to link up and strengthen our bonds of fellowship."

"Friendship. She said friendship, but the point still stands." Twilight had broken out of her highly focused stupor of looking at everything the town had to offer and spoke up for a moment. "Similar in tone and feeling but going by the treaty definition it sounds far less forceful and more collaborative."

Luna loved Twilight's odd foibles, but the modern world was so passively forceful in wordings that she tended to get annoyed just trying to buy clothing when necessary. "Friendship, and I can at least vouch that there is something freeing in that, else I would be more of the pony that your songs probably sing about in hushed tones instead of the pony standing here today." Luna tried to act tough, but the aftermath of Nightmare Night had not yet worn off and so she was still a head shorter than the white furred deer she was talking to.

"Quite. Else we wouldn't have let you in. Blackthorn was rather loud and focused on that." Aspen shook his head, the light sounds of bells in his headdress lightly clinking as he did so. "Fine. Though this will be at most a. . .how did your treaty put it- a proprietary offer in troops. Though we can still trade ideas, if you'd like."

Twilight's eyes lit up. "Are you sure? Cause I mean I've only written like a few questions on how deer magic works. And then the history and-" Twilight rattled off far more than just a few questions as she followed the deer into the longhouse that housed his living quarters.

Aspen laughed. "I would say many of those questions involve deer far more focused than I. Though I could introduce you to a few bonesingers that share at least a bit of your curiosity. For one, my primary bonesinger can't get enough of the possibilities of this treaty of yours. She just wouldn't stop talking my ear off all day yesterday."

"Who is it?" Twilight was rather interested now.

"My wife. And unlike my brother, she was a rather loud and active voice for cooperation."

Twilight and Luna blinked for a moment. "You're married?"

Aspen turned back to his guests, slightly unsure of what pony taboo he had touched so strongly. "I'm a chief of the deer. It would be more surprising if I wasn't married to some deer. Aren't you Princesses all married in some way or did I misinterpret exactly what the immortal leaders actually did with their time leading a country? With how you two fought in our duel, I thought you two had to be as well."

Twilight and Luna blushed heavily and didn't answer him.

***

"Bon Bon, you said this would be an easy mission." Applejack whispered as they walked towards the large demon wolf that was their target. She would normally be happy that they were in the woods. A part of her liked nature and relaxing under a tree when necessary. That was a nice way to relax. Not whatever this monster hunting excursion was.

"Do you want to stay with Dash's parents in the ship? Cause you can do that." Bon Bon rifled through her bag, searching through what looked like ten pounds of refuse and trash in Applejack's eyes. "Sleep darts, poison, magical explosives, nail file." Bon Bon pulled that out and looked at it for a minute. "I was looking for that for ages. Lyra, I told you to keep an eye on that."

Lyra's head popped out, her eyes glowing with glee as she slid on a few layers of light body armor. "I told you that it was in your gun pouch. It's your fault you didn't believe me." The unicorn stretched her body as she limbered herself up for her favorite type of animal hunting. The dangerous kind. "So, go full magic blades or what?"

Bon Bon nodded. "Magical blades would work- you could go with blunt instruments, but this isn't a creature vaguely related to breezies and the like. No silver or iron. Though be careful getting up close, these things have more teeth than you realize probably thanks to evolving for the plains of Tartarus. That place is awful."

Applejack rolled her eyes as the two crazy ponies that thought dragging her out here bickered and bantered amongst each other like a ten-foot demon wolf with blazing eyes wasn't just fifty yards away. "So, what do I do, exactly. I mean if I wanted to stay here."

Bon Bon clapped her hooves together. "You get the easy job." She pulled out a little box with a small button from her bag. "You get to cast the net. See this button here?" The cream-colored earth pony tapped the top of the box. "Touch here when I tell you and poof, one high tech magical net to catch even the hardiest monsters."

Applejack raised an eyebrow at that. "It's a box."

"Which is a net. I'd have Lyra cast a similar spell, but she will be indisposed during the capture attempt. And this little box is M.A.R.E.'s patented very own magical net for those ponies that don't have a horn." Bon Bon rolled her eyes. "Magical items, if you will."

Applejack sighed. This was going to be a mess.

Bon Bon stared at Applejack and Lyra- they had talked long enough about the plan. Now it was time to put it into practice. She nodded at Lyra who slunk off towards the wild beast. The cream-colored earth pony knew that while her marefriend was a hot-headed unicorn with something like a death wish at how often she put her life in danger, she knew how to generally follow a plan when it came to wrestling monsters into cages.

Applejack was something of an enigma to her. Element Bearer, sense of stability when it came to emotional things, family oriented. Sometimes good in a fight or two. Never really saw her fight an actual monster that was really all that intimidating. Bugbears were a nuisance, true, and every monster wrangler for M.A.R.E had fought timberwolves, but the really fringe stuff that Bon Bon had planned to grab for this coming conflict were a breed apart- usually thanks to magic or curses or just how things evolved slowly through time.

"Stick to the plan. And when I say press the button, press it and throw it towards the monster. Got it?"

Applejack nodded.

"Good, now if you don't mind me, I have a wolf to hunt." Bon Bon walked towards the large demonic wolf in the midst of the clearing, quickly reloading her guns, practiced motions gained from years of training making the motions look simple. "Hey dumb wolf, look at me."

The varcolac turned its head, spiny fur standing on edge as it smelled and saw a possible prey, its claws burning with the heat of a normal day in Tartarus. It growled as it looked up and down the pony, small and weak in its eyes. Easy prey. It's jaw opened up like a flower petal, rows an rows of teeth surrounding an empty black hole of a gullet as it bent down, ready to pounce.

Bon Bon smiled. With one practiced twirl, she raised her rifle and aimed it right at the wolf, quickly firing a few pot shots at the center of mass to annoy it. First rule of monster hunting- annoy the monsters for an opening. Second rule, don't hunt alone. She whistled to Lyra, who ran out from behind a nearby rock with blades swinging.

Lyra slid underneath the reddish wolf, her blades nicking the hide slightly as she twirled underneath while Bon Bon shot more rounds near the mouth of the beast. It was the largest part of her target and she didn't want to let up putting on the heat.

Applejack just stood there slightly confused. The pair of them looked capable, dancing in a mass of death as the large lupine creature huffed in pain as its idea of a quick, simple meal was now hampered by hurt. Lyra twisted onto the creatures back, careful not to stay in one spot for too long since its snapping jaws curled and twisted trying to get her. Bon Bon zipped between the large trees in the clearing, her gun firing as fast as she could reload.

"AJ, now, toss the box."

Applejack blinked, focusing on the cool metallic box in her hooves. She fumbled momentarily with the button, her hooves slipping on the surface until she pressed down hard on it and tossed it as hard as she could into the clearing. The three ponies sat there waiting for a moment for the mechanism inside the box to start and it erupted with a larger blue net the wrapped itself around the paw of the beast, snaking its way up the hulking wolf and muzzling the beast in what felt like the longest minute of Applejack's life.

The beast fumbled on its paws and laid down hard on the grass, a resounding thump echoing through the clearing as it pawed desperately at the ground to escape.

Lyra slid carefully to the ground, quickly rolling as to not fall on her face, and grinned at the pair of earth ponies staring at the wolf. "Easy peasy."

"Easy only because we stopped it before it would have split into smaller wolves."

Applejack laughed for a moment because that sounded ridiculous. "You're kidding."

Bon Bon shook her head. "No, this "wolf" right here is a nice pack of wolves nesting inside it. The thing looks bigger from predators and so it's what M.A.R.E. liked to call a 'nesting doll full of wolves'. And no, Applejack, while I can see your face, you don't want to meet the creatures that hunt this for food. Tartarus is the least favorite spot for work for a good reason." She stretched her limbs and smiled. "Now who wants to call the Dasher so we can get out of here?"

***

Yakyakistan

Pinkie popped her head out of the treeline and dug through her bag. Binoculars had to be there somewhere. She had told Cheese to put them in her bag for a reason. Pinkie breathed out slowly as she crawled towards the road, quickly sliding behind a tree stump that kept her from view. At least the guards weren't all that attentive- the huge yaks that were standing around the entrance to the town. Pinkie squinted trying to read the weird script that the yaks used, what looked like 'Ivanburg' if Maud had translated the town's name correctly. Boring name. Pinkie would have called it Snowville or Winterton or Iceburg. There was so much possibility than just naming it after someone.

She swiveled her head and aimed the binoculars that she had just found in her bag after a minute of coming up with better names for the town. She looked for any big, awesome buildings or tents. If they were going to introduce themselves to the head honcho of the yaks, then they should at least attempt to be right. It would be awkward if the yak they thought was a king or prince was just a baron or knight. Pinkie yawned, feeling tired just from remembering Rarity's weird rant about nobility ranks. She had done that before the Gala and look where that had gotten them. One ruined Gala, that's what. Pinkie felt a pang of guilt at remembering the fun times she had with her friends, with Twilight in particular. She shook her head and beckoned her sisters and Cheese over.

The four other ponies scrambled out of the woods. They had been fortunate that the yaks they had seen hadn't seen them so far. They had overheard things in small camps and guard posts while they had run through the countryside. New management for yaks, talks of the Storm King, something about a tournament coming up soon. It didn't take a genius to see an opportunity to get some yaks on their side.

"How many guards?" Maud plopped herself down on the snow and stared at the town.

Pinkie shrugged. "I see twenty or so. But I doubt we can take them. Not everyone is like you." Pinkie sighed and put back her binoculars. "Sneaky time. I mean Lime and you would probably love some kind of big blowout fight, but that's huge and we already stick out like sore hooves."

Limestone rolled her eyes and crossed her hooves. "I mean yeah after the last few days we had, of course I'd rather blow off steam by punching stuff."

Marble shrugged and pointed at a nearby old, dilapidated tower that connected to the eastern wall. Maybe it was an old expansion of the walls or some useless entrance never blocked up. Either way, the outside showed very few guards and a possible way over the walls without much hassle. "Could use that to get in."

Pinkie nodded. "Sure, that's an easy way in."

Limestone grimaced. "Still pissed that it took Pinkie to come back to make Marble a chatterbox again. I wasn't great at charades and playing it for a decade to communicate was just wonderful." She shook her head. "Whatever, I got shit to do anyway." She breathed out and let her Sense go, the connection with the dead making her glow with a greenish hue. "Be quick you guys, I can only comfortably hold this for ten minutes max. Else it starts getting weird." She stomped off to the town gates, her steps leaving a faint glowing goo.

The remaining ponies waited for a minute for the screams to start attracting all the other guards around the walls before running as fast as they could to the tower.

Yona hummed to herself as she carefully swept up the dust in the ancient tower that her ancestors built. Rutheford said they had used it for a library once, which might explain some of the books that didn't involve smashing stuff or singing yak songs- one held something about diplomacy that she found to be too stuffy and full of words that she didn't know all that well. She used this place for a nice hideaway when she needed time to think and while it had held a belfry of bats and a few skeletons that she really hated finding at first, it had grown into a nice home like place with a few chairs and a small bed for when she really just didn't want to deal with other yaks. Yaks were great until the tournaments happened and then every yak only thought of smashing stuff and nothing else. She liked smashing stuff, but there had to be more to life than just smashing things and remaking those things to smash. Some unknown word that she would figure out one day. She turned around, stuck on the word and bellowed a great mighty scream of terror when she saw things that weren't supposed to be there.

Ponies.

Cute, not yak ponies.

She screamed as loud as she could and ran behind a nearby chair. She hoped they didn't see her behind the chair, since it had been quite a long time since she could hide behind a small chair and not be seen by anything, but she prayed that she was invisible.

"Pinkie, I thought you said there was no guards. That's a yak right there."

"Does that look like a guard to you? I don't see swords or anything dangerous. And they are behind a chair."

Yona grimaced. She had been seen and her cover was blown. She carefully opened an eye and stared up at the pink pony who was sitting ever so calmly on the chair she was trying to hide behind. Yona blinked, unsure of what to do. Yaks had stories of ponies being slightly more dangerous than most creatures and here she was looking at a nomal, if oddly colored pony. "Huh, Yona is confused."

Pinkie smiled. "See guys, not dangerous, now let's get through the tower and leave this yak alone. I mean we're on a schedule to go see the yakkiest yak of them all and we have a whole town to go through. Prince of yaks here we come."

The three other ponies, all different colors and moods, stared at their leader, Yona presumed they were the leader- they had the brightest coat and talked the most which was kind of how yaks worked. Besides the bright coats. Yaks didn't have those. But the most talkative yak was the most important and Rutheford never was fully silent in his ways of rule. Writing down things, speaking to yaks, singing yak songs. He was a real leader of a yak.

"Well, we have to go fast. It's been like three minutes." The dark gray pony slowly spoke, their words all methodical and very understandable for a yak. They had only so many words to say and the ones they chose were important.

They turned, leaving Yona to her own thoughts. They didn't seem evil, not like the stories of the old yak songs where ponies took what they wanted and left yaks with nothing, they seemed completely oblivious to all the important writings that Yona had in this old library. She eyed them trying to search for a ladder, their voices wavering as they only came up with more books. She had sorted them this morning and while she didn't like some of them were more hoofs on with tossing aside books, they were better than yaks in that regard. If she wanted a non-smash focused time, she had to hide the books from yaks. She stood up carefully and tip toed to the middle of the room, her nerves almost getting the better of her. She breathed out and counted quickly to ten to relax herself. "Yona could help you find important yak."

The pink one turned and smiled. "Neat. Always wanted to talk to an actual yak. I mean we've tried the last few days, but most have been either terrified of us or wanted to, how did they put it, 'smash us to bits' which really was a problem. I'm Pinkie, and over there is Cheese Sandwich and there's Marble and Maud, my sisters. I'd introduce you to Limestone, as well but she's kind of near the front gate doing. . .something."

A loud scream came from the front gate as Pinkie explained the situation.

"Uh, so what's the plan, Yona?"

***

Fluttershy groaned as she walked up the stairs of the Wonderbolt practice grounds. She and Dash had moved most of their things into Canterlot in the last month. She had to tell each and every one of her animal friends the bad news about her extended leave from Ponyville and that had been a few awful days with Harry and the rest of her animal friends crying about a thing that she wanted desperately not to do.

She blinked as she tried to keep that bottle of emotions away from her face. Dash wouldn't like every pegasi to think that she was a major crier, but the pain of it, while dulled after a month, still hurt.

She had said a few choice words to Twilight about that.

"Twilight, you can't just tell every single one of your friends to uproot our lives to move to Canterlot. That's. . .horrible." Fluttershy would have said harsher words, but she was not really a fan of swearing. She was mightly peeved though, the pacing back and forth and widened stance of her borrowed blue body told Twilight enough.

Twilight frowned. "I know that, I've tried to explain to each and every bureaucratic organization I could that we shouldn't just do that, written in triplicate and holding references to certain events that we helped out on. That hasn't worked." She fumbled through her desk, spilling inkwells and parchment all over her floor as she tried to explain the situation. The talk hadn't gone well with anypony- Fluttershy, for how mad she was, hadn't held a candle to Rarity or Applejack. "I mean it's a few months at most. One? Two? Not that long."

Fluttershy opened the door to the barracks, waving at a few pegasi she noticed from flying practice. Thunderlane and Flitter were the most recognizable, though Dash had listed every single current Wonderbolt that was also in their surrounding rooms and it was a mess to keep track of- Fire Streak, Surprise, even Spitfire and Soarin' had a room somewhere in this long hall. It had been the Canterlot Flight School a few weeks ago and it felt like it. The rooms were cramped and small and if Dash and her weren't in a relationship, the factor of bunking two to a room would have been rather awkward.

She groaned as she felt a muscle twinge in pain. She may be occupying Dash's limber and lithe body that was used to active flight, but she was the one controlling it and flying was tiring. She had had a few months to get used to the basics, but everypony expected her to fly like a genius- and she was lacking in that kind of skills. The only way for her to keep up with the others was after hours training from Blossomforth and she had just finished a lengthy and painful lesson on how to corkscrew during flight. It was a major headache.

She opened the door to her and Dash's room and laid down on the bed and shut her eyes. She heard the shower going ever so quietly through the bathroom door and sighed. She had to take a shower at some point and, knowing Dash, she probably wouldn't mind her barging in and taking a spot next to her in the shower. The first day of training had devolved into something more sensual after it had ended, and Fluttershy had been horribly sore.

She got up and brushed herself off and opened the door to the bathroom. "Dash, I'm back."

Fluttershy heard a scrambling of hooves, odd because Dash wasn't known for being surprised with ponies entering a bathroom. She'd usually be. . .down for that, if Fluttershy had the exact wording that Dash used. She shrugged and pulled back the curtain- she was tired and needed a bath.

Fluttershy pulled it back and was greeted by a sheepishly grinning Dash with something that wasn't there the last time she had seen them. Two things actually- an odd amulet that gleamed with a faint silver glow. That was definitely new. And secondly, Dash was male again. There wasn't much to hide it, since the form Dash had been graced with during Nightmare Night a month ago took up most of the whole shower. And well, he couldn't hide the pole that jutted out so obscenely as that one, its mottled yellow and brown length drawing most ponies' eyes. "Dash, please explain how in the name of all that is good in the world why you are back again as a male. I'd guess it wasn't Twilight because she was especially insistent that having you run around as a stallion would be an 'indecent proposition.'"

Dash breathed out, his very masculine voice a honey to Fluttershy's ears. It definitely sounded different than she was used to- Twilight had once mentioned how voices sound different to the pony speaking and hearing them. Still sounded nice and bass filled- she at least could like it now with distance from the Flutterguy incident. "I can explain. I thought you'd come back from practice later, and I could surprise you with this handy amulet Rarity enchanted." He quickly pointed at the amulet.

Fluttershy frowned. "Rarity enchanted an amulet so you can turn into a male? That at least sounds like something she might do. It definitely looks like her work in a way. All built on swirls and gems and all that stuff I usually tuned her out for. Not that I was being mean, I just could handle so much explaining of 'how gem matrices influence jewelry design.'

Dash flinched, ready for the rare Fluttershy freakout lecture because he did something silly. It was rare and, compared to most ponies, not all that angry, just having one of the nicest ponies be disappointed in something Dash had done felt awful. Normally, Shy pulled them out when he got a little too close to the edge of death with some death defying stunt gone wrong. Not that he minded, sometimes it was hot, and Dash had become rather good at riding the line between general cuts and bruises and the hospital, so he could show up at Fluttershy's house and get a stern talking to, some food, and maybe a cuddle or two away from judging eyes once the bandages were set. But he waited for the tonal switch, the sweet yet tough bedside manner and nothing came. Dash opened his eyes to see Fluttershy standing there in the shower, the two of them saying nothing. The water being the only sound for a good minute running over the both of them and going into the drain.

Dash broke the silence first. "So, you're not mad? I can take it off. Rarity made it so it isn't a permanent thing. She thought it'd be easier than the whole mess of asking a unicorn all the time to change us back and forth. She said it would have tons of possibilities for 'business' whatever that means." Dash cringed at the thought. "I hope I didn't help her make a sex club."

Fluttershy sighed and grabbed the soap, scrubbing the blue coat and wings she had grown slightly accustomed to in the last few months. "I'm thinking. And no, she doesn't mean a sex club. Though ponies might use it for that. I'm trying to figure out if I'm too tired to try something." Fluttershy stretched the blue wings out. "Care to preen me? I got some rather bad feathers in the back I noticed earlier today, and I can't reach them."

"Sure." Dash breathed out a slight sigh of relief. He carefully tried to inch closer to Fluttershy, who turned and opened her back up to Dash. The action of letting another pegasi preen you was an intimate act that few pegasi let others do. It was an act of trust and close friendship, if not more than that. He angled his neck downwards, the normal pony sized shower cramped by the size of him. He knew he should have put on the amulet outside of the shower, but curiosity had gotten the best of him- Dash wanted to see what all the stallions talked about with the whole alone time in the shower bit they mentioned. It was nice but left something to be desired. Dash finally got a good angle and leaned fully down, getting the blue feathers that looked askew and barely hanging on to the blue wings in his sights. He knew exactly what he was looking for, his original body a canvas of hard work and dedication to flight. Plucking the few offending feathers he spat them out onto the bathroom floor. Not ideal but they needed to dry since the water from the shower head rained down on both of them.

"That's better." Fluttershy moaned as she felt her back pop with a long stretch, her muscles easing up under the warm water that cascaded down her back and pooling around the two ponies' hooves. She turned back to Dash looking at the chiseled jaw of yellow that she had only seen once, part of her slightly glad that she had been born female because she had had so many issues growing up as a larger mare. She couldn't imagine being even larger as a stallion. She eyed the large yellow pole in front of her and sighed. Dash had always had a bit of a hair trigger, and even in a different body that hadn't changed at all. "Dash, do I need to give you a hoof to fix that?" Fluttershy rolled her eyes playfully, a smirk dancing upon her lips as she looked at Dash. She could see Dash's face slightly, a sense of confusion. She was rather annoyed that Dash had done something without at least warning her about it, thought the possibilities of what they could do did excite her. She may be a bit of a shut in, but it didn't mean she wasn't a mare with needs.

Dash blushed crimson. "Uh, no? I'm, uh, going to take off the amulet."

Fluttershy sighed. "And lose out on what you were planning on doing anyway? Because I know you Dashie-" Fluttershy used the pet name she called Rainbow to get their full attention. "and you wouldn't get Rarity to make you a piece of jewelry for any reason. You hate wearing jewelry. So there had to be another reason." Fluttershy looked at Dash who was nervously trying to look away from the much smaller mare. "And it's been a whole month where we've focused on so many different things." Fluttershy slid down the tub part of the shower, feeling the cool porcelain on her back and stared up at the large member that was taking up most of her view. She could separate herself from the moment and appeciate the heft of the whole thing, the pendulous balls, the thick shaft that might just get some of the frustrations she had pent up for the whole month out.

"Shy, what are you doing?" Dash was nervous. Sure, Fluttershy sometimes got freaky when they had time alone together. But it was usually Dash who took the initiative, not the shy, timid mare. Even if she had a rather impressive collection of toys that she brought out sometimes.

Fluttershy flapped her blue wings ever so slightly to get air and gripped tightly onto the huge yellow stallion's barrel to get the angle correct. She had an entire month's flight practice under her belt and even if she was exhausted, she wasn't so tired that this was truly difficult. She breathed out, listening to the rhythm of Dash's beating heart and impaled herself on the pole with a rising squeak as she did so. She felt the medial ring slide in and stretch her to a slightly uncomfortable degree, the feeling of it slowly filling her insides was odd- pleasure mixed with a hint of pain. Not especially fun, if she had to say so herself. And staring at the foot and a half of penis that was in front of her still, that was definitely not going to fit anywhere in the body she was currently occupying. It was a bridge too far.

Dash grunted as the feeling of having your marefriend pretty much impaled on your dick was overwhelming and relatively new. A part of him worried that he was hurting her to an unreasonable degree. It had been only the month before when he joked that it was a deadly weapon, but the last time they had tried out a dick, it was slightly on more equal terms. He could feel Fluttershy use the body he was so used to- what used to be his own- and flap her wings up and down, trying to get a rhythm that let her go up and down the pole at a speed that was reasonable. Slow and methodical she went up and down, letting her lapses of pleasure to break the rhythmic humping that was going on. He felt the shower run hot water down his wings and back and he tried to carefully lean on the wall of the shower. "Ngh, I really hope you know what you are doing."

Fluttershy's voice came back in between gasps and slight moans. "You wanted to try this out and we are doing this and it gets my mind off the terrible month I've had."

Dash grimaced. He had seen and felt the aftermath of Twilight breaking the news to all of them. He had felt conflicted- he was a Wonderbolt at heart and so he was used to the iea that he could be called up for emergencies all the time. It didn't happen often due to his other important duties but being a Wonderbolt was both about being a performer and a first responder in equal measure. Fluttershy had no sense of that with her job. She took care of wounded animals, some from birth and just letting them all fend for themselves because she had no time to spare between Canterlot and Ponyville had hurt her. Not that they hadn't tried to pawn off a few animals- birds, fish, rodents, any number of creatures- to Ponyville and some had found some nice homes in the few days between the news and departure. But some hadn't and those were in a limbo- the world outside her cottage was the Everfree and that place was a mess. Fluttershy had even broke down and begged some of them to find the deer and try living there. Dash couldn't imagine the emotions that Fluttershy had had- she could only see the few times they had broken through her attempts at a steely demeanor, and those had been heart wrenching to see.

They still had Angel and he was off somewhere in Canterlot currently, probably right now living it up stealing from food stalls like he did in Ponyville and just causing havoc- but that was one rabbit out of probably a good hundred or so animals.

Fluttershy was a mess of emotions. She had gotten used to the overall size of Dash's male member and had been slowly picking up speed for the last few minutes, her mind awash with all the exhausting things she did every day. Acting like Rainbow Dash to those who didn't know about the magical mishap that had trapped her in the blue body she was in was mentally tiring. Always acting like an imitation of Rainbow, the cool bravado, the brashness, the awesomeness. All covering the inner turmoil of wondering if she might ever get back to normal. Not that she minded at points- the longing and flurry of emotions that she had for Dash previously had bloomed into something more, but she'd love to be in her original body at times. She had grown used to seeing Dash's eyes and face stare back at her in the mirror. Didn't mean that she had grown to completely accept it as her reality forever.

"I'm close." Dash leaned further onto the wall, his legs almost like jelly as the orgasm hit in waves. He closed his eyes and rode the blissful release as he hoped Shy had gotten off in time. They didn't need other problems like this especially right now.

Fluttershy tried to flap her wings and couldn't. The day had been tiring and she had misjudged how much energy she had left. She paled as she realized she was stuck. "Take off the amulet, Dash. I'm stuck."

Dash blinked and fumbled for a moment, unable to find a good grip on the amulet so fast with how it had become wet and lay flat against his chest. "Uh, we have a-" Dash couldn't finish the sentence as Fluttershy slid down his mighty pillar and caused him to lose control and he bellowed out a rather loud yell that, knowing the rest of the pegasi that surrounded them, would be the talk of the entire block of rooms for the next week. "I'm cumming. oh Celestia, I'm cumming."

Fluttershy felt the first waves of the orgasm hit her like a fire hose and she groaned as her body tried to contain it all and failed miserably one she was overfull of the white stuff, the rest leaking out and making a messy mix of water and cum as the two ponies rode the emotional high that they had.

They both froze for a moment, unsure of what to do. This definitely had been a possibility of course, they would have been stupid to not recognize the risks, but they both sat in silence, unsure of what to say.

Dash hummed to himself and grabbed the amulet and pulled it over his head, letting the spell drop and Dash went back to normal. Well, as normal as being in Fluttershy's body could be, but she leaned down and picked up the smaller blue pegasus and did the most natural thing she could think of in the moment. She kissed Fluttershy as long and hard as she could. Breaking the kiss, Dash let Fluttershy lean into her chest and she hugged her close, letting the small pegasi sit there and let her emotions out. She felt her chest dampen with tears and she was partially glad that she could blame the wetness on the shower and not her beautiful and strong marefriend finally letting out the pain she had kept in.

She did it for Dash so well- being the beacon of silent strength that Dash could depend on. She could do it for her, even if it made her slightly uncool in the eyes of some ponies. "I love you, Fluttershy and whatever happens, I'm going to be here for you."

Dash let the water run over them and grinned to herself since she realized that they'd have to take another shower.

Author's Note

Back to regularly scheduled chapters.