Author's Note

This is a (clop) sequel to “Home” written with some light RGRE elements and with emphasis on story. I went back and forth a LOT during planning of this story as to how to frame it. 1st person? 3rd person? Present tense? Past tense? In the end, I decided on 1st person past tense, however since I wanted to have scenes without the human protagonist, I relented on switching perspectives, marking each switch with a military-style status readout as seen below – a trick I “borrowed” from “Horse Girls Are Watching”. Enjoy! 😊

1 - The Hunt

``` Report: Lance Corporal [NAME REDACTED] of 14th Solar Battalion Location: Planet Equis. East Equestria. Local time: 2300 hours Status report: Company behind enemy lines. Tango in sight. Undetected. On my mark.

```

1. Focus. Wait for the opportunity. 4. Breathe. Calm and steady. 3. Stay down. Strong stance. 2. Aim. Shaft to the ear. Tip to the heart. 1. Hold breath. Fire.

A single arrow was let loose, and at once, a horde of bat silhouettes descended from the canopy as a rain of death. The elder stag had no time to react. An arrow in his chest, his herd-members panicked. I fired a second arrow into his chest, swiftly followed by a third. The animal was quickly left alone, his fate sealed. Fangs pierced flesh, and the hot, metallic stench of blood filled the air. One of the group, a dark-coated bat-mare, hissed with euphoric excitement as she bore her sharp fangs, ready to extract the blood she desired so much. As they pierced the dying creature’s neck, her eyes rolled back and her heartrate soared. Her breaths came in short, shallow pants as she tasted the sweet nectar. The stag’s kicking and struggling became weaker and weaker as the life was drained out of him, until, finally, he stilled.

Suddenly, the ecstasy of the moment was interrupted as her eyes met mine. Our eyes locked for a moment and even in the dark, I could swear she was blushing.

“Good shot, Newbee.” Came a gruff, male voice from behind, as another shadow shot past me, diving for the dead animal and snapping me out of my gaze. I pulled out a large, sharp hunting knife, ready to carve out a decent meal.

A little while later, I sat around a crackling campfire cooking my freshly cut venison steak on the end of a long metal fork. The hunting party had split into various social circles, only around 2-3 to a fire, around mine was Azure Moon – a mare I’d met a few weeks prior – and a friend she had introduced as Skye Nova.

“How many did we take down in the end?” I asked, trying to make idle conversation with the strange creatures.

“Uhhh, three, I think?” Azure answered equally idly. The hunting party was only made up of a dozen-or-so Bat-Ponies, so there was easily enough food for everyone with 3 deers downed.

“Good work with the bow, Rook. Didn’t think you’d be able to do it. Most stallions choose to let the mares do the hunting.” The darker-coloured bat-mare said. “I gotta say, you don’t look all that dangerous, to me.”

“Seems you underestimated him, Skye.” Azure Moon added coyly.

“Story of my life.” I simply stated, trying not to take offence to Skye’s emasculating comment. I took a moment to admire the two mares before me, their bat-like features flickering in the firelight.

Most Bat-Ponies had a dark coat of some kind; it’s what they were known for, (well that and eating meat, but let’s gloss over that) and Azure Moon was no exception. Hers was dark blue, almost navy, and I’d known from past observation that it made her almost impossible to spot in the night sky. Along the tips of her wings, however, were silver highlights that sometimes shone as if there were made of actual polished silver. Her mane was a dark, metallic grey, almost black, and a silver streak stretched from top, all the way to the bottom of her dead-straight hair. Her tail had the same colour scheme, albeit with a spiky, tail ring accessory that looked like it belonged on a rebelling teenager and not a military trained, predator of the night. Her blue face was accented with silver markings around her eyes and if one looked closely enough, a few dark freckles could be seen just under them. By far her most striking feature, were her eyes themselves. Like almost all Bat-Ponies she had vertical, snake-like pupils, but hers were ringed with deep, blood red irises. I’m not going to lie; I found those blood-ruby eyes captivating; as if they were drawing me in with their almost hypnotic flare every time I looked at them.

Skye Nova was the darker of the two; sporting an almost black coat but with a vibrant, dark red and orange mane and tail that looked like they were on fire. The contrast between black and fiery colour really did remind me of images of supernovae I’d seen on the internet; hence her name I suppose.

“Where did you say you were from?” Skye asked suddenly, snapping me from my thoughts.

“Earth. My planet was-is called Earth.”

“How’d you get here?” Azure looked at me, her ears perking up. My mind flashed back to images of twisted metal. Screaming people and wailing sirens filled my mind. And water. So much rushing water. My consciousness flickered back to reality and I shivered involuntarily.

“Not my favourite topic.” I examined my steak; almost done to perfection. “Not like it matters anyway.” I added quietly, but apparently not quietly enough to evade a Bat-Pony’s sharp hearing.

“What do you mean? Why doesn’t it matter?” Azure piped up. I did jump slightly, surprised she’d heard me but I just shrugged again.

“Cos I will probably never see it again. I can’t go back.”

“Why not?” The other mare asked. “Can’t you just go back the way you came?” I shook my head.

“Doesn’t work like that. Celestia said she had the perfect pers-er-pony to investigate whatever brought me here. Called them a 'genius'. Never met them face-to-face but I got letters every now and then. Last update was a couple of months ago. And well, it’s not looking good. Apparently, once a link opens between worlds, it’s almost impossible to reopen it to the same place and time again; something about universes moving at random through 4-dimensional space – I don’t understand most of it to be honest. But the long-and-short of it is, I’m never getting back home.” The two looked ashen, neither sure what to say. “Worse places to get stuck, though.” I added, wanting to break the awkward silence. The two mares perked up. “Decent weather. Steady work.” I gestured to my haunch of meat as I took a large bite out of it. “Good food. Just sayin’. Could be worse.”

“That’s a… positive attitude.” Skye added carefully.

“What about family though?” Azure blabbed, which earned a sharp jab in the side from her friend. “What? I wanna know!” She looked at me with curious eyes. “Parents? Mare-friend? A herd?”

“Dad and I fell out years ago. Let’s just say things were said and leave it there. I have a sister but she’s off doing her own thing; couldn’t really give a damn about us. My poor old mum tried her best with us, but…” I trailed off as I felt a stabbing pain in my chest. “Yeah. No one left to miss me, even if I could go back.” I immediately hated myself for that line; was that too melancholic? Too dramatic and whiny? They probably thought I was pathetic. “W-What about you, Azure? You got a family?” I quickly asked, wanting to get the attention off me as I took another huge bite of fresh meat.

“Full works.” She said, grumbling. “Brother, five sisters, Mother, Father, even cousin Forest Bloom.”

“Wow.” I said, astonished. “That’s quite the family.”

“Not that any of them are worth a damn.” Azure grumbled under her breath, going unnoticed to her friend.

“Bat-Ponies are very talented breeders!” Skye said with beaming pride. “We are the most fertile out of all the pony races! And we’re the best in the bedroom too!” She said, giving me a sly wink. Azure just huffed. “Whaaat?” Skye protested. “It’s not racist if it’s true! I mean do you really think some whelpling unicorn stallion could keep up with either of us? Much less a herd?!”

“Have you ever actually tried a unicorn stallion?” I asked, wanting to test a theory about Skye. Azure smirked coyly as she looked at Skye whose nose was scrunching up in disgust.

“What?! Ewwwww No! You think I’d raise my tail to one of those high-and-mighty Sunflowers? Buck no.” I chuckled.

“Then how do you know they wouldn’t be worth your time?” I asked through a mouthful of venison. Azure snorted as she tried to keep in her laughter.

“Haha! He’s got you there, Skye!” The darker mare just huffed and focused on her own meat.

“You know I’m right, Azure.”

“What about you, Skye?” I asked, still chewing. “What’s your story?” She just shrugged.

“Oh, you know. Just your average marely-mare looking for love.” She puffed out her chest which she must have thought was intimidating but actually just made her look cute with all that chest-fluff. “Or at least a decent herd with a nice handsome stallion to buck.” Her eyes glazed over as she considered an idea that had just popped into her head. “Or three.” Azure suddenly laughed raucously at her friend’s expense.

“Three stallions? Oh Luna! You’re not serious! Like you could pull that off!” Skye almost looked offended.

“Probably better than you could, Moony.” Azure’s wings flared and her predatory eyes narrowed at Skye at the mention of her loathed nickname. “B-besides! Why not?!” She quickly added, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

“Because it’s almost impossible to find a nice stallion all to yourself, Skye!” Azure explained as if it was pre-school level science. “I mean when was the last time you saw a herd with more than one stallion? I mean maybe if you’re royalty but otherwise, it’s just not going to happen.” There was that word again. ‘Herd’. I swallowed before nervously asking what I’m sure would be an extremely obvious question.

“W-when you say, ‘herd’… you mean…?” The mares looked confused.

“You know, when two or more mares share a stallion!” Skye explained with the same condescending attitude Azure had used on her.

“So… polygamous relationships are common here. Fancy that.” I said, trying not to sound too interested before quietly adding. “Lucky bastards.”

“Why? Didn’t they have the same thing in your world?” Skye asked. I shook my head. I really needed to learn to keep my mouth shut when Bat-Ponies were around.

“No. Polygamous relationships aren’t really a thing with humans. I mean it’s not unheard of, but it’s very rare and not exactly accepted in common society.” I explained. Her eyes drifted to my cut of the stag, and the blood now dripping down my mouth as I bit into the juicy flesh.

“Rare. Not unlike your steak, Human.” Skye said, eying either me or my meat hungrily (I couldn’t tell which). Instinctively, I brought the haunch closer to my chest, as if protecting my kill.

“Hey, touch my food, you die, little Bat-Horse!” Azure snorted and even Skye looked a little taken back.

“Ohhhh tough guy and likes his meat nice and bloody? Where did you get this one, Azure? He’s a firecracker!” I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but let it slide anyway. “Better watch out, some lucky mare’s gonna snatch you up pretty soon. Surprised nopony has already!”

“Maybe the species difference has got something to do with it, you retarded edgelord horse!” I thought angrily, but this time I kept my mouth firmly shut as I didn’t want to rise to her obvious trolling.

“Hey, you’re not… I mean…” Skye trailed off, clearly unsure how to phrase it.

“What?” I asked.

“You know, you don’t ‘bat for the other team’, right?” My face deadpanned.

“I’m not gay.” I stated flatly. Skye looked relieved.

“Phew. That’s good.”

“Why’s it good?” I asked.

“It just is.”

The rest of the night was spent with idle chatter, although a lot more of it came from Skye than from Azure. She seemed genuinely interested in my origins of Earth and my bizarre Human customs, while Azure just stuck to grunting and the occasional bantering comment. Eventually sleep began to call to me however. I had prepared for this hunt by taking a couple of days off work to get my body clock the right way around but even so, the siren of sleep was offering her sweet embrace and I was growing more tempted to let her take me. I had read that night shift workers back on earth often struggled when it came to around 3 or 4 AM, especially if they were not used to it and now, I was starting to get what they meant. Throwing my bone onto the pile, I yawned hugely.

“I… I’m gonna get some sleep, okay?” I didn’t notice, but as I stretched out, both mares were watching my powerful limbs.

“But… It’s still early.” Azure spoke uncharacteristically softly.

“Maybe for you Bats!” I countered as I finished my stretching. “But I’m not used to this yet and besides, I go back to work in a couple of days so I gotta get my clock right for that.” Laying back on my sleeping bag, I began to make myself comfortable. Skye seemed to understand but Azure just grunted, and resumed gnawing on her bone.

“Hey, one thing?” I looked up at Skye for a moment, awaiting whatever she had to say. “So… you Humans can switch between day and night cycles at will? You can sleep whenever you want?” I chuckled.

“Switching between the two can be hard, but we get used to it pretty quickly, yeah.” I explained. “Why?”

“Just wondered.” I yawned again as I hit the pillow, sleep now consuming me.

“Good Night, Girls.”

“Good Day.” Both said in unison.