Author's Note

A bit of a word of warning. Some tags Sex for both sexual themes and sex that haven't been used much, but are on this fic are going to be coming into play a bit more in the upcoming chapters. So be prepared.

Chapter Forty Two: Estrus Escapades Part One.

My Little Tactics

Chapter Forty Two: Estrus Escapades Part One.

Dustan was looking out his window and out to the courtyard as every female that was a part of his land was heading to Ponyville and every male that was a part of said town, as well as those too young to go into estrus, was coming there. Turns out many species went into estrus at this time as well not just ponies so it was pretty much an understood global holiday week. Thankfully the human’s mind was no longer plagued with nightmares for which he thanked Luna every morning when he woke up fresh and ready for the day. This year he had a few things planned to keep everyone entertained. However there were a few things that he had to check on. Thankfully he had people for that so all he had to do was read the reports.

The BoogyMash ranch, which was the monster ranchers name for her and her partners new area, would still be up and running. The ranch was far enough away from the town so it wouldn’t be a problem and the two newest residents of Luminary Town and Castle, which is what the local residents had now been referring to the Luminary areas as, were eager to get started. Weirdly the owners of the ranch: Boogy Bash and Monster Mash, even now Dustan couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes at pony names sometimes, got along with Fluttershy. The pegasus had come to meet the two, an Earth Pony and Pegasus respectively, and discuss her dislike of the idea with the two of them. Applejack had also come with her wanting to see what a ranch was like and see if she could be neighborly and offer any help or advice.

Fluttershy listed all her complaints, the idea about trapping the animals, about butchering them, raising them for this purpose and more. The two ranchers took it well and told her that beyond some safety measures the most that would happen would be the clipping of wings and feathers so some couldn’t fly, a few clippings of claws, and more all while they were out cold. They also had to be trained not to attack anything that got close to them so keeping them in pins for now was the best way. They had plans for free roam cases which is why a lot of their land was given to them for. The pegasus still didn’t like the idea and she made it known…until Applejack spoke up in defense towards the ranchers.

“You know sugarcube, Ah raise pigs right?” This fact had been forgotten by Dustan and was surprised when he heard that but all things considered it wouldn’t have helped his situation anyways.

Fluttershy looked at her a bit strangely. “Yes as pets.”

Shaking her head and laying a hoof on her friend’s shoulder the farmer told her the truth. “No. The farm has a few customers that like meat and though ah don’t approve, we raise fellas up to be shipped off and turned into some folk’s food. However we make sure they are raised with love and affection before they go. We may not do the butcherin’ ourselves but we have a hoof in it. Folks around here need meat to stay healthy they're born that way.”

The buttercream pegasus was in shock having not known these facts and had her lip quivering as she looked to the two ranchers. “W-will you make sure that they are h-happy.”

“That was the plan. Plus it means if we can get these fellas where they aren’t a danger to ponies well isn’t that all the better? Who knows if they get to be nice enough ponies might want to adopt some as pets.” Looking over to a cage where an Aevis was currently asleep. “Remember, all animals even dogs, were once wild. It took ponies a long time to turn them to our friends. We plan to do the same here, but until then, folks need help in other ways and they can help.”

“O-ok.” Was all she could say before Fluttershy took to the air, something she rarely did. It was clear she wanted to be by herself and get there quickly.

The ranch would run as it would before, though there were many signs for no trespassing just in case ponies came to their land, which was all fenced off. Which was a bit of a load off his mind and he could focus on other things. Construction would come to a halt as both Eden and Sturdy would head to Ponyville for two reasons. One Eden and Sturdy were trying for a foal, and second they wished to form a herd so would look for potential mares to join.

‘Good for them.’ Dustan supposed especially on the former reason though wasn’t so sure for the second reason. ‘If I ever start dating ponies then I might have to deal with that. Problem is, with the teleport Glyph being worked on to be easier, do I even want to try to date them. I have already determined I am going to live here, no reason I can’t pop into my world every now and then to try to date right? Hmm seems like it might be a hassle.’

Putting that out of his mind for now the Lord of the Everfree looked at the rest of his issues. Seems they were back in the black for money, which was good. He made a note to go see Finance later to see what swung it back in their favor, but she was currently in Ponyville now. His classes would still resume but only have the foals in attendance and the males that could attend, though many were now working as substitutes in various areas to keep the world running.

The squire would suddenly stop reading and his hand went to his right arm, the unfeeling limb was a reminder of last Estrus season, a year had gone past already. Only three individuals knew about his arm: Patrick and the Princesses, well two of them. Cadance didn’t know after all. Holding up his unfeeling arm he closed his eyes and slowly tried to push magic down his shoulder and into it. As always the feeling of magic, as well as everything else, stopped at mid bicep. Dustan had asked Celestia when he talked with her privately during his extra day at the castle recently if she had considered keeping Philomena’s feathers to make more Phoenix Down and she had told him no. Which means if someone close to him or around him were in need of a revive; until he could learn the spell properly, he had to rely on the two Phoenix down bundles he had left. What else would he have to lose to save them?

He suddenly slapped his face and shook his head to clear those thoughts from his mind. ‘Ok, now to put my plans into action. The foals are going to need entertainment. I have just the thing!’ He would have to set that up after lessons. First things first though. “Hey Side!”

Side, who was covering Merlene’s job, came through the door that he had been guarding. “Yes sir?” Side asked as he stood at attention.

“I wanna run a plan by you.” The pony raised his eyebrow at that as Dustan started to explain things to him. “What do you think?”

“Honestly…” Side seemed to take a moment before chuckling. “I think it wouldn’t just be the foals interested. Might just want to make it an open to the public thing and give the foals the best seats.”

Considering what he was planning it made sense, especially considering there were only males around. “Sure I can do that, though that just means I have to adjust where it’s going to happen. The dining area you think?” Getting a nod from Side he smiled “Alright then, its settled. Mind spreading the word while I go teach? There will be an hour of it at Lunch and Dinner time.” Saluting Side calmly walked to the door and closed it as Dustan sat down and smiled thinking that went over well only to hear the sudden sounds of hooves galloping down the hall making him laugh loudly. ‘Hopefully they all enjoy it.’

The classes went well, especially Apple Bloom who seemed to be getting stronger and stronger, able to cast all the basic abilities of a Black Mage. Sweetie Belle was faltering in the black arts but was excelling in the White ones. She was able to cast Cure, Protect, and Shell now. Scootaloo in her training was actually getting really strong, leveling up as a Knight had her on par with most normal adult ponies which, while slightly frightening, made him proud. She also had a handful of break techniques under her belt, though the ones she used most were Power and Speed rends.

When he asked her why those two she claimed. “Well, I figure even if someone-” it warmed his heart to hear ponies like her using someone instead of somepony. “-was wearing armor if they lost power and speed, the armor would weigh them down. Meaning not only would it make them easier to hit but might make it so they surrender when they can’t move or raise themselves or their weapon up.” He was very proud of her, though it was slightly weird when she put her sword and armor away that she could still stand on her hind hooves. Turns out she had been practicing that and was able to stay up all the time. “You wouldn’t believe how standing up like this makes some things much easier. I can grab two things at once and easily reach so many things.”

Nodding at that Dustan wiggled his fingers. “My people don’t normally have magic, it’s for that we evolved to stand on two legs and have fingers, makes it easier to grab things for sure as well as to use other tools that our brains invent.”

Moving to go back to all fours she smiled and nodded. “Yep, I can imagine.”

As Dustan went to put away his equipment he could have sworn he saw something out of the corner of his eyes a blur of color but it was so fast he couldn’t tell what it was. He only knew it was one color, maybe two. The human wiped the sweat from his brow and decided a soak was in order before lunch as he had just enough time. Heading into the castle he smiled, one of the latest adjustments to the castle was one that they were putting everywhere. Whereas before candles were used now it was magical crystals imbued with a light spell all controlled by a series of dials attached to a wall. Ponies had invented dimmer switches. With that checked off, he made sure to close every window possible.

Seeing that they worked Dustan went up to his room to grab the items in question before coming back down stairs to set up shop as well as to set up the ‘premium’ seats. His seat was far in the back away from everyone else though so as to control things properly. The blue clothed human smiled as he had just finished queuing everything up and running a test when people started to come in. “Welcome everyone, if you have heard we are running something a little special for Lunch time today for an hour and will be doing so again at Dinner time. So please grab your lunches and head to your seats. Children there are premium seats marked off for you that will give you the best spots for this.”

Not just the children but a lot of the adults too went to grab their lunch and take their seats. There were many chattering conversations that started, all pretty much asking the same things of ‘what do you think is happening’ or speculating on what it could be. Moving to the controls for the lights he dimmed them slowly nearly all the way down. Just enough light to see where one was going as well as any food in front of them. Making his way back to his little closed off area, technically it was a little bar that was closed off as the Mares who ran it were not around and all the liquor cabinets were locked up. Having pulled a chair behind the bar beforehand Dustan started the projection of his laptop.

“Pay attention to the south wall please.” Some chattering died off as they all looked as he had his word program pulled up and it read. ‘Please keep chatter to a minimum during the show. Also the show you are about to watch takes place on a fictional world called: Earth.’

He then switched to the program he had pulled up, hit play, and then let his computer screen rest as he focused on the wall as well just in time for the theme song to start playing. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, heroes in a half shell, turtle power!”

“Oh that seems interesting.” A voice to his left whispered out along with the crunch of some popcorn.

Having not sensed anyone there a second ago it caused Dustan to jump a bit and look to see Pinkie Pie there munching the treat from a bucket. “Pinkie.” Dustan said in a bit of a strained whisper of his own. “What are you doing here. You are supposed to be in Ponyville.”

“Well you see, my Pinkie Sense went off this morning telling me something fun and interesting was going to happen at the castle today. As I wasn’t sure what time it was, I had snuck over here and been watching from anywhere I could. You almost caught me once before, though I had let my guard down then.” Munching another hoofful of kernels she smiled. “Oh I like the orange one, he is a party dude. So am I.”

Rubbing his nose between two fingers Dustan muttered. “Technically you would be a dudette-that isn’t the point I was trying to make here. Its Estrus season, you aren’t supposed to be here.”

She gave a wave of her hoof and made a ‘pfft’ sound. “That didn’t stop me last time to come peek at the stallions. I mean check on, I meant check on.” The blush on her cheeks said otherwise. “Besides, my times are almost always SUPER light which is why I can usually entertain all the mares over in Ponyville. It helps to keep their mind off things that way.”

Sighing as he knew he couldn’t stop the weirdly supernatural party pony. “Look, just make sure no one sees or smells you.”

Smiling, Pinkie held up a can of something. “Oh don’t worry, I have this. Madame Marvelous’ Mare Spray. This spray eliminates the smell of a mare in heat as well as most smells in general. It’s why no pony finds my secret stashes of things as I make sure they don’t have a smell to them. That and their hidden super well”

‘That has to be the most snake oily name I have ever heard.’ He thought to himself. “And you are sure it works?”

“Do you smell me right now?” She said that even as she gave a suggestive wiggle to her eyebrows.

Shaking his head he chuckled at her antics. “Nope, but then again a human’s sense of smell is far weaker than a ponies. I am not even sure if I could tell if a mare is in heat or not.”

“Really? Huh that explains a couple of things.” She muttered that so low that he couldn’t hear her over the show though. After that Pinkie quieted down to watch the show, but would whisper comments to him on which parts she found funny, and was holding a hoof over her mouth to cover her laughter if it got loud. She even gave a couple of cute snorting laughs when something funny surprised him which in turn made Dustan laugh with her.

It wasn’t just her either, the kids and even some of the adults were cheering for the turtles or laughing when they did something hilarious. By the time the hour was up they were clapping and some foals were pretending to be ninjas. However he made sure they paid attention to something. Pulling up his word program once again he showed a message.

‘Tonight at Dinner will be another show, a different one then this that way you all can experience two different things. This will happen every day this way for the next week while Estrus season is going on. Enjoy and remember to clean up your tables.’ With that he closed down the laptop and went to turn on the lights.

“I will be back at dinner time.” Pinkie called from behind the bar in a whisper as he turned back to turn the lights on. When he turned to look again, she was gone.

The turtles were the talk of the day after that, foals playing as their favorite turtle all mimicking ninja movies as they ran around defeating the foot. He couldn’t help himself in some cases telling the children to wait for him there as he ran into the kitchen and grabbed a few things, quickly turning it into a costume and came back out to play with them as the shredder. He had them giggling and running in ‘terror’. It took a team of thirty ninja foals to bring him down as he was dog piled by them as they defeated him with their ninja tactic. Dustan was really happy with having almost super human stamina as if he didn’t, he would swear that alone would have run him ragged. Feeling sweaty once again he took another soak storing his clothing in the little nook provided.

With that done he had an hour to do some paperwork, which considering the state of things was very light. He was done before the hour was up and went to work setting up for dinner. He tried to make the bar area more like a projector booth then before closing the little shutter from the top part of the bar down almost all the way leaving only a slit left and closed the little side door area as well. Dustan could still see the movie plenty well, but it was mostly for show. Plus this way there was a much lower chance of someone looking back and seeing Pinkie if she showed up again of which he had no doubt she would. His extra time prepping things allowed him to set up something that he had not thought of before and it was worth it. As along with dinner, there was now popcorn to give to everyone who came today. Or at least he hoped.

The children burst in through the castle doors into the dining room excited and eager as did some adults, though rushing in or not, everyone was moving quickly. Once more when everyone was seated, Dustan came out of the bar area and turned the lights down low which caused everyone to become hushed. It didn’t seem like he needed to this time but he still pulled up the low chatter sign.

“You there Pinkie?” He asked looking at the movie player on his laptop ready to switch over and press play.

“Yeppers. So what are you showing this time Dusty?” She asked in an excited hushed tone as she moved close to him pulling up a chair of her own.

“You are about to see.” With that he hit the play button and let his screen turn black to watch the show.

The show opened up with a sick guitar playing along with some drums as a desolate landscape was shown with two men in white suits walking funny as they went to this large ornate tube and removed the lid. “Ahh at last, after ten thousand years I am free. It is time to conquer earth!” A woman with a weird hat and questionable chest wear called out.

A large blue-white face in a tube appeared. “Alpha! Rita has escaped. Recruit a team of teenagers with attitude.” It then showed five teens being teleported away in different colors before the opening song started.

“Go, Go, Power Rangers!” The unseen singer called out.

“You are pretty good with foals you know.” Pinkie broke the slight noise of popcorn munching from both of them to say.

Turning to her he gave a confused look. “Huh?”

Giggling a bit she smiled and looked to him. “I watched you play with the foals. You played that shred head guy with kitchen wear all over you.”

“Oh that, yeah that was fun.” Dustan smiled remembering their laughter. “Seeing them laugh and smile like that, who wouldn’t have fun doing that?”

“You would be surprised.” Giving a raised eyebrow of his own this time Pinkie continued as she looked at him. “A lot of stallions, while decent with their own foals are not good with others. They don’t really look to make them smile like that.” Moving to reach over between their chairs she wrapped her hooves around him and gave him a hug “Thank you for that.”

Smiling and reaching up, he would return the hug and even gave her a pat on the head. “No problem Pinkie. I didn’t do that for thanks, but to bring a smile to their faces and have some fun of my own.”

Breaking the hug they both went back to watching the show, or at least he thought they did until Pinkie coughed a bit to get his attention. “Do you think you could pat my head some more?”

Giving a smile he would reach over to pull her chair close and then rest his hand on her head petting and rubbing it. A content smile covered her face as she closed her eyes. Dustan wasn’t sure if she ever got to watch the Power Rangers but as long as she was happy that is what mattered. By the time it was over Pinkie nearly fell over as she had been leaning into the petting so much that his missing presence wasn’t noticed right away. She had such a dopey smile on her face that Dustan couldn’t help but chuckle some. His chuckle must have embarrassed her as she suddenly sat up straight.

As he closed the door behind him the human thought he heard a ‘psst’ and came back to check on her seeing her curly bouncy mane swish for a moment. “What was that? I didn’t hear you”

“Oh nothing.” She smiled though she seemed to be also thinking about something.

Shrugging it off Dustan went to turn on the lights. “Thank you everyone I hope you will enjoy this tomorrow as well and the rest of the week.” The guests left to all go to where they were staying that night and as Dustan went to grab his equipment, he once again saw that the pink party pony of Ponyville had made her escape. In her place she left a cupcake and a note.

The note was simple and to the point saying. ‘Thank you for the nice time. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.’

Taking the cupcake and giving it a bite, it was nice and sweet, and…had a raspberry filling, double nice. ‘Wait would that make this more akin to a donut cause of the filling?’ Shrugging as he didn’t care, he finished off the treat and went to bed.

Same as the other night, he no longer had those nightmares, just a dreamless night’s sleep.

As he was having breakfast the next day Burly Bellows came up to him with a chuckle. “You know I am no wood carver right?”

“Right.” Dustan answered, though almost asked that same word as his eyebrow slowly rose.

Burly clapped him on the back as the blacksmith came to sit down next to him with his own food. “Well then, I will have you know that I have foals of all kinds and species coming to ask me for toy sword this, toy staff that, and other things from the things you showed them yesterday. I had so many request tickets in my inbox this morning I nearly spit out my coffee. That and I have overheard so many foals talking about going to Ms Belle in Ponyville to make them ‘Ranger costumes’.”

The grin on his face was a mile wide as he slowly ate his food. “Hearing that makes my morning Burly, it honestly does. Those shows were a generation before my time but my father had recordings of them and showed them to me as I grew up. I loved them.”

“So what is on the tally for our Lord today?” The smith asked with a smile.

“Well, after breakfast I have some paperwork to do.” The plate was almost empty as he said that taking a big drink of the fresh squeezed orange juice. “After that I have magic classes to teach then melee classes. Normally they aren’t this often but since my work load is a lot less during this week I don’t have a problem with it.”

The mood seemed to shift as it was just the two of them sitting there. “Aye, I reckon at this stage you are good for that.” The smith seemed to be looking at him with intent eyes now. “But eventually that filly you are teaching or anyone fighting like a biped is gonna figure out your right arm is a dud.”

Dustan nearly choked on the last bite of his food as he heard that. “W-” having to take a drink of his juice to swallow he looked to Burly only after making sure no one else was in ear shot. “What are you talking about?”

“Listen hot shot.” The smith poked his hoof against his chest. “I may not be as spry as I once was, but I have worked on armor long enough to know the proper shapes even for creatures I have never seen wear it. I have to know how they move, how they do things in order to make sure nothing pinches or catches. Your right arm, it’s a dud. I suspected for a while now but I have been too busy to watch you in action. Yesterday, thanks to estrus, I wasn’t busy and saw your fight.” Dustan could feel himself go a bit pale at that. “As far as I can reckon, I don’t recall you ever being hurt that bad. You were fine a while back maybe around the time you came back from Manehatten. You weren’t fine about a year ago when I reckon you first talked to me about a shield. I remember your fightin’ style, sword in one hand, those fancy magicks being slung in the other. You were happy with that style then suddenly you claimed you wanted a change. What happened and why are you hiding it.”

Finishing off his food he gestured for the smith to follow him, though the smith did carry his tray of food with him. Once they were at his office he had Burly take a seat as he sat opposite of him. Stacking his paperwork up neatly mostly as a stall tactic he sighed.

Hanging his head down and clasping his hands in a bridge to lay said head down on he spoke to the smith. “What we talk about here doesn’t leave the room, understand?”

“Aye.” The smith said and seemed to puff up a bit, no doubt putting it on his honor as a smith or some like.

“You remember the hydra?” That got a nod from the muscular smith. “It was then. Do you remember the filly you saw me sparing with?” again another nod came from the smith. “She is the reason.”

“Ahh, there is nothing wrong with sustaining an injury in defense of a young one.” The old pony said chuckling a bit.

Dustan shook his head and closed his eyes tight. “I didn’t save her.” The chuckling stopped as he said that. “She got poisoned when the hydra destroyed the cart her and her friends were riding. A sliver of its claw, poison and all, came loose and got in her.”

Hearing a hiss of air Dustan looked up to see the smith drawing in a breath as he was pale beneath his coat. “Sun’s sake. I heard that stuff is right nasty. But that doesn’t explain your injury.”

“I am getting to it.” Pulling out a Phoenix Down from his pouch he placed it in front of the smith. “Do you know what this is?”

Taking out an eye glass from his apron the smith used it to examine the feather. “That right there is a genuine bundle of Phoenix feathers. Used to have an old customer who had a plume on his helm made of these babies. I couldn’t get a hold of them myself but he brought replacements every time. He died of old age a few years ago.”

‘Damn, that spark of hope was quickly snuffed out. Thought I had a source of downs there.’ Pulling it back into his pouch he would tell the smith. “Well, it is like I just showed you, it is an item like my Salve or the healing Potions. Able to be used to do some neat things. For this one…it calls back the soul of the recently deceased.”

Dustan made sure to be looking right into Burly Bellow’s eyes when he said that. The reaction was slow almost none believing for a moment, but the slow steady realization dawned on the poor old stallion. His eyes went slowly wide, his pupils went small and his mouth hung open.

“No…you aren’t say what I think you are saying are you?” The smith gestured to him almost pleadingly.

Nodding a simple nod Dustan finished his explanation. “Yeah, though they do not work one hundred percent like I thought they did. They don’t bring a soul back. Instead it lets you negotiate with the entity that represents death to bargain for them back.” It was quick but Dustan caught it. The moment he finished that sentence, Burly glanced over to his right arm. “Yeah. A piece of my soul to return hers and give her another chance at life.”

“Tartarus colt.” Gesturing to his arm the graying pony asked him. “So he took part of your soul, the part that is in your arm or somethin’?”

“Yeah.” Holding up his arm and pointing to the midway of his bicep. “I asked him to take my arm from here down. I can physically control my arm still but I have to think about moving it. I can’t feel anything or channel mana properly down it.”

Holding up a hoof to his mouth the smith muttered. “So. You can’t sling your spells anymore through that arm since you can’t feel your magicks and you can’t switch to using your sword in that hand since it doesn’t respond like you want.” Nodding to that the smith sighed and leaned back on his haunches. “Which is why you asked for that strap on shield there. That buckler is literally the only thing you can use.”

“Yeah.” Dustan seemed to be saying that a lot today and it was barely after breakfast.

Getting up, the pony held out a hoof to shake. “If it makes you feel any better. I think you did the right thing.”

“So do I. Still sucks about my arm though. Literally has been a year now. You are the first person to catch on. The princesses know though, they are the only ones.” Standing up Dustan would see him to the door.

“You didn’t tell that filly you train. About her dyin’ and you giving up your arm to save her?” Burly asked as they were at the door.

“No, and I don’t intend to tell her either. I don’t want her feeling survivors guilt or anything.” Dustan said before holding up a finger to his lips and opening up the door. “Have a good day Burly.”

Burly looked back at him for a moment before giving him a salute similar to what the Luminary guard gave. “You too My Lord.”

Looking off to the side he saw Sidewinder there standing straight. “I am going to do some paperwork, be out in a bit.”

“Yes si-ahem, Yes My Lord.” Side also gave him a salute as he headed back inside his office.

His work was light enabling him to head towards the classroom early. Honestly it was rather eventful as Apple Bloom moved from beginner mage to intermediate. One moment she was concentrating hard on her ice spell Blizzard. The next thing he knew there was a burst of magic and she had activated Blizzara. Neither he nor she knew how it happened. When asked if she had learned it via the classroom she said no. Though he considered that its possible she figured it out on her own, he chalked it up more to being a Cutie Mark Crusader as no other student that has gotten to that point, Mystic and only Mystic, had been able to learn those spells via anything but the classroom. He was very proud of her and gave her a big hug knocking her large hat off her head for a moment. Bloom had taken to wearing black mages robes during training, hat included. The only difference is her hat had her signature bow on it and a small pin that had the logo of the CMC on it. In fact even when not training he had noticed she took to wearing that hat.

Now that he thought about it, all the Crusaders took to wearing something from their job even while not training. Bloom had taken to the aforementioned hat. Sweetie Belle had a white with red trim cape and hoodie that she wore with said hood having the CMC logo embroider on it so that whenever it was flipped on, anyone could see it on the forehead. Though said hoodie had room for her ears, it reminded Dustan of the cat ear hoodie several Final Fantasy characters would wear. Scootaloo took to wearing a short shoulder mounted cloak so as not to get in the way of her wings. The cloak also bore the symbol of the CMC splayed on the back.

While he enjoyed how well they took to their new roles, he did receive reports of how they used their abilities. Apple Bloom tried to freeze a small kitchen fire. Nice intentions of course, but the large frozen pan took hours to thaw and because of the rapid heating and cooling were later found cracked and unusable. Sweetie Belle tried to cast Shell on a pony who she thought was trying to keep a bed of flowers from hitting her by levitating it. Problem was the pony was trying to put it on a window sill. The magic surrounding her startled her causing her to drop the flowers right on her head through Shell as it was meant to protect from physical abilities. Scootaloo went full Link on a pottery shop because she was trying to kill a fly that was annoying her. He regrets giving her that wooden sword to this day.

Speaking of Scootaloo, her training was going well, though after that morning’s conversation Dustan was trying to move his shield arm a bit more to have it active in the fight. This was both good and bad as his defensive game was on point more than usual, but his offensive game suffered as a result. Not much considering how much faster he was then her by still a good bit. She wouldn’t be able to tell nor would anyone watching as he always took it easy on her, but Dustan could tell.

After that Dustan went to the springs to soak once more. He folded up his t-shirt and pants putting his shoes atop of them as he headed to the spring. His muscles, even if they were not sore, always thanked him when he spent time there making him consider naming it a town treasure. When his soak was finished he went to the little nook to retrieve his clothing and noticed something odd. He thought he placed his shoes on top of his clothes but it was his shirt that was on top. Shrugging, he gathered it all up, dressed and went to do the last bit of paperwork if there was any before setting up.

There was none so he went to setting up the little movie booth right away. Closing the shutters almost all the way, the door closed, making sure the south wall was nice and cleaned and that his laptop was set up properly. Heaven’s forbid he shows them Elfin Lied or something, that would scar the children and the adults considering this was Equestria after all. The next episodes of the classic TMNT were queued up in the play list and a quick run showed everything was working. Once more he set about getting some popcorn set up for everyone even grabbing two buckets for himself to put in his little stall, one for himself and one for Pinkie if she showed up same with a pair of chairs.

Lunch came and ponies quickly took their seats, a small bit of chatter in hushed tones came about, mostly from the children as they took excited guesses on what would happen today. It was like Saturday morning back when he was a kid and that was when all the good cartoons came on. Dimming the lights he came back into the booth and seen Pinkie in her seat with popcorn in hoof. This time the quiet sign was displayed quicker than normal since all were used to it and once more that fantastic old school theme song was played.

“Hey Dustan?” Looking over he saw the pink pony looking at him. The human merely responded with a questioning muffled ‘hmm’ thanks to his mouth being full of popcorn. “It’s hard to see from this seat, mind if I sit on your lap. Plus that will make it easier to pet me.”

Seeing no reason not to, plus petting that fluffy hair of hers was rather nice. “Sure, let me just move my popcorn.” Setting it nearby and making sure to wipe his hands off he would pat his lap and smile “Alright, hands no longer greasy and lap free.”

That sentence was barely over by the time that plump rear landed on him. It was hard to tell normally but Pinkie did have some weight to her that made her stand out to other ponies that were in shape. Not to say it was a bad thing, just a bit of extra padding around her belly and her flanks, haunches, he always forgot the specific term.

She had to wiggle in place for a minute to get comfortable but when he asked if she was comfortable she stopped and looked back at him. “Yeppers, best seat in the house.”

With that she would get the best treatment in the house as well as he started to pet her, gently combing through her mane and rubbing along the fur of her back. It was rather cute as she kept giving sighs every now and then and would kick out her leg like a dog being pet. All too soon though the show was over and Pinkie seemed sad about that. She got up and quickly gave a spray to herself with that anti-scent spray, and to him.

“Hey what was that for?” He was slightly miffed at that but was willing to see if she had a good excuse.

“Silly.” She told him storing the spray in her mane, how he didn’t find it before was a mystery to him. “You had a mare in estrus on your lap for an hour. Even if my heat is light ponies or anyone with a sensitive nose would smell it on you. I guess you are right, humans don’t smell it.”

He had honestly forgotten that part and quickly grew red. “Yeah, thanks.”

Shutting down for the time the lights came back on and he packed it up as the kids ran out. Many of them now sporting colored bands of cloth over their eyes with holes cut out each representing their favorite turtle. As before he became the Shredder and went out to play with the kids. He ran, there were twice as many wanting to play as yesterday. Too bad he purposefully didn’t run fast enough as the foals caught up to him and started to play beat him up with their various sticks and what not.

Getting his butt handed to him by children for a couple of hours works up a sweat and once again he was soaking. This time he made sure to put his shirt at the bottom of the nook. After his soak he was right to make sure as his shirt was now on top like before. Why though? He checked it and really couldn’t figure out why it was taken. Nothing seemed wrong with it, hell he didn’t even smell any of his sweat on it. Deciding that he would try to find out another time, Dustan went about the rest of his day before coming back to once more play the show for the evening.

Setting the Power Rangers playlist up Dustan did his light check, movie and sound check, before going to start popping the popcorn alongside Faithful and the chef’s working in the kitchen. “I am rather proud of you My Lord.”

Hearing Faithful say that, he looked to the personal butler and cocked his head to the side a bit. “Huh, why?”

“You are trying to entertain Foal and Pony alike as well as all residents in this time of stress. You are a good person.” Hearing the older pony say that, he couldn’t help but smile and rub the back of his head.

Looking at him with that smile the human shook his head. “It’s no trouble. My work load is a lot less right now and it shares something of me with them you know?”

The elderly butler simply smiled and nodded, saying nothing as he went back to cooking. Setting the buckets up, he brought back two once again but this time he also brought some drinks. He may not have had a lot of popcorn last time but he had wished he had the soda as the popcorn had made his mouth dry for that whole thing. This time Pinkie was waiting for him as she made grabby hooves at the tub of popcorn and her drink smiling as she did so.

The short haired human rolled his eyes before handing over the treats to her all around the time folks started to come into the hall. Quickly grabbing hold of the door to make sure no one could peek in to find Pinkie he shut it behind him as he waited by the dimmer for everyone to take their seats. He could hear the crowd coming before they actually arrived, the door coming open and everyone filing in, talking loudly up until the point where they sat. Once they sat down they became quiet though positively trembling with excitement. The lights would dim and there were a few excited squeals from foals that brought a smile to his face.

This time he came prepared, having saved a movie on his desktop of just the quiet screen that would play for fifteen seconds before the first of the two episodes scheduled to play. As he sat down this time Pinkie wasted no time to claim his lap as her own seat and wiggled around for a good bit. He supposed it took her longer this time since he just barely sat down and didn’t get a chance to get comfortable himself. Dustan had to move around a bit and adjust himself, even causing a couple of surprised sounding noises to come from Pinkie.

Shrugging that off thinking maybe she enjoyed being shuffled around he was tempted to play horsey with her but decided against it as it might be racist…he actually wasn’t sure about that and wasn’t going to ask. Devoting one hand to petting and rubbing her back the other would be exclusive to popcorn and his drink. Pinkie must have been a fan of Power Rangers as he could feel her excitement around the time the first episodes big battle came around, she was practically trembling on his lap. It only got worse around the time the second episode was happening as she was practically wiggling around at that point. Tensions were getting high in the show and he could tell as Pinkie’s trembling got worse and she was gripping his pant legs rather hard now but he didn’t want to interrupt her enjoyment of the show so he just let it be.

The theme song started to play as the Megazord powered up its sword and it seems Pinkie was happy as he could hear her whisper. “Yes, yes.” Then the zord struck and the enemy was cut down causing some of the foals in the crowd to cheer even as Pinkie gave a bit of a jump bouncing down on him making him grunt out from the force as he heard her sigh quietly. “Yeah~.”

Patting her head caused her to give a start as he asked her. “You were really hyped for the battle there. Enjoy the show.” For a second in the dark he saw Pinkie turn to him and her eyes grow wide for a moment.

She quickly went for her drink but in her hurry ended up dumping it out all over them. “Oh sorry sorry, here let me clean that up.” Grabbing one of the bar towels she quickly went to wipe her legs and the floor before going to his pants. “Oh darn now you are going to smell like soda, plus mare from where I was sitting. Let me just-” Quickly he was sprayed all over even got some in his eyes making them close as he coughed and heard the spray continue to go. When he opened his eyes she was spraying herself and giggled. “I may smell like sugary treats normally but I am not supposed to be smelled at all today.” She told him as she was fanning the mist of the spray away from her face.

“No problem, I am going to go change really quick before the show is over, it has a couple of minutes, I can make it back before then.” He told his fellow booth operator who gave him a bit of a sheepish and apologetic smile.

By the time he got back, the show was over and he turned off the laptop, Pinkie must have already made her exit though not without leaving another cupcake and letter. “Thanks again. Sorry about the mess. It won’t happen again.” The letter was closed off with a lipstick covered kiss. When did she have make up on? Chalking it up to Pinkie being Pinkie he stowed the letter away and led the guests out.

Another weird day down five more to go in estrus week.