Summer Blossom gestured towards the door that led to the outside world. "Ah have to go out there and make some bits, so we can keep this lovely house and enjoy our tasty food. Just how it goes."

Winter nodded placidly, knowing what work meant, and money. He felt she was a bit silly spelling it out, but he wasn't mad, not at that. He was more disappointed at the truth that he had to be apart from her for a little while. He gently touched the end of his furry snout to her cheek to let her know that.

"I'll miss you too." She quickly kissed the end of his nose. "Be good." She trotted for the door. He moved to trot with her and she stopped, letting him get past her before her teeth came down on a smooth part of his tail, stopping him instantly. "Stay. I'll be back, you wait here."

Ah, right, he had one of those. He looked back at the new bit of anatomy, a whole new limb. He lifted the tail free of her snout and gave it a little sway, marveling at the sensation of moving what he never had before.

Summer mistook his expression for acceptance. "Good. Off ah go." She trotted around him, vanishing out the front door. He heard a click of the door locking, not that he couldn't open it, the lock being on his side. It was perhaps for his own safety? It was that or she thought he didn't know how locks worked. That would have been silly.

There he was, stuck in her house. He looked around calmly, searching for something interesting. There. He came across a small shelf of books and began floating them free to have a look at them. They all looked old, the newest being some mystery about who stole a muffin. Why would ponies have a murder mystery, he calmly decided with a little smile.

He set the book back where it came from to look at the next. Journals, but not from her. Family journals? They smelled old and felt just as ancient. He set them down carefully, repopulating the shelf. There was another journal, but not nearly as old.

It was Summer's. It said as much, and contained her hopes and dreams as he skimmed. Was it alright to read that? Didn't people normally hide their journals?

If she hadn't hidden it, maybe it was open to read?

Or, maybe, she just wasn't used to living with anyone she would object to seeing the journal. He considered this, tapping a cloven hoof as he did so. He really wanted to know more about his mare. He could be a better partner by knowing more about her. He promised himself to not laugh or poke fun at any sensitive information. This was entirely to become a better partner.

He walked off with that one book in his magic grasp, bouncing along with him before he hopped up onto the sofa in the living room. He rolled over onto his back and got comfortable, the book floating down into view and opening to the first page.

It was time to read and learn.

Summer hopped up onto the wheel. "'Morning girls!"

"Morning," came the return cry of several others, manning the conveyor belts.

"Ready when you are," called one, waving a hoof. "You're looking bushy-tailed." Others nodded with soft agreeing murmurs.

Summer began to trot forward, causing the wheel to turn and the belts to move. There were cherries to inspect and sort, and so the day began. "I'm feelin' great!" she agreed with a big smile. "Let's break some records!"

The others cheered in solidarity before their hooves got busy, knocking cherries aside into a sorted bin, or the trash, as needed. It was a fine day to work the cherry factory.

Winter willed the next page to come, eyes sweeping left and right. Ponies were not humans, that much was clear. He was not a pony. He had been a human. He could remember his life. It played alongside Summer's as he read about hers. Part of him felt he should be more concerned about the loose threads he left behind, but maybe there weren't any.

He sat up a little, considering it. If people were being kidnapped by that unicorn, that would be noticed. It would be a Big Deal, but he certainly hadn't heard about people starting to vanish, yet she seemed perfectly comfortable with it, as if she'd done it before.

He raised a cloven hoof to his chin, reading about Summer even as he considered himself. Maybe, just maybe... He wasn't that person. He was, as they said, a spirit. A copy of that human, placed in a body that had rapidly grown into a lovely kirin. If they had used the human for a sort of... template, a base, that sorta made sense. They needed an intelligence, why not copy something that was already sapient and aware instead of making it from scratch?

But that meant he was nothing. He was just an echo of some person who had lived a life, who was still living that life.

He was a soft imprint on clay, a flimsy copy of the original.

The panic that should have come, just didn't. He instead just nodded softly, feeling happy for his new kirin self. Kirins just didn't seem to get worked up very easily. So he was a copy. Weren't all people... copies, to a degree? He was himself. He was Winter Flame, and Winter Flame was a kirin stallion with a mare who loved him, and wasn't that worthy of being happy about?

He was not that human. He was a copy of that human, a gift of that human intelligence and a way of thought. He thanked the human who he had never really been, feeling thankful and more secure in himself as he worked through the philosophy of it. Had that human gone on to win even more challenging raids?

Perhaps. But Winter Flame had a great challenge yet; a mare that needed to be won over forever. He let out a soundless breath as he turned the page. There was a picture there of Summer standing beside another little foal, a boy foal, a colt. They had their arms around each other and were smiling big for the camera that had captured the picture. Small writing on the bottom of the picture labeled it as 'Summer and Tusk'.

He smiled faintly at it, wondering about this foalhood friend, or relative? It could have been either. He got back to reading, wanting to learn more.

His stomach reminded him that it was there, gurgling a complaint. He hadn't eaten breakfast, or lunch. A glance at the clock showed it was time for the latter. The furnace of learning needed fuel. He slipped from the couch and trotted towards the kitchen at an easy pace. When had he learned to trot?

That was easy, he decided as he went. If he was just a copy of a soul placed in another body, the body would start imprinting on the soul in return. That soft clay thing was coming back. It was shaped by the first place it came from, but was bent and reshaped by the body it lived in. He was a kirin, so of course he trotted. It was just what kirin did.

Was he that calmly thoughtful before? He felt certain that wasn't true. But it was nice, he decided, to calmly work through things. Having a longer attention span was a blessing, not a curse. He opened the fridge and looked about. There was a large apple that he floated free, bobbing just beside the book he was reading. He nudged the door shut and hopped up at the table, chewing the apple and resuming his reading.

The apple vanished sometime during his reading. He threw it away without thinking, his attention locked on the book. The sudden knocking got his attention, making him start in surprise before looking to the front door. It sounded like a hoof on wood. Who could that be? He slipped down to the wooden floor and approached, but sat down in front of the door, his tufted tail swaying left and right, but he said nothing. He was a kirin. Kirins didn't talk, he felt certain.

Should he open the door? That would... perhaps upset Summer, and he didn't want that. If it was important, they'd knock again.

A slit opened in the door and some letters dropped through onto the floor. Ah, it had been the mail mare, or stallion. He willed the collection of letters up and returned to the living room with his prize, reading over them casually. Most were addressed to Summer specifically, of course, and he set those aside on the table there. One, however, was addressed to 'current resident'.

Well, he resided there. That made him a valid person to open it, he decided. It was probably an advertisement, and she wouldn't be upset at its absence. He slipped his hoof along the flap, cutting it open and brushing it upwards as his magic reached inside and pulled free what seemed to be a brochure.

"Tired of the same old same old?!" asked the thing in big bold letters, practically bouncing off the sheet. "We have vacation plans to all the exotic locations you've only heard rumors about!"

He tilted his head at the advertisement. Vacations, in Equestria? What manner of places were they offering? He flipped to the next page, skipping a lot of the fine print to get at the good stuff. They had packages to Las Pegasus and Manehattan of course. More interestingly, to him, they were excitedly offering trips to the changeling kingdom. "Meet the once-predators turned friendly neighbors! They're just as eager to meet you as you are to meet them."

They had far longer journeys on offer to places across the ocean. Istanbull, Turkey, Prance? He had to give this travel company credit for having plenty of options, and many of them looked legitimately fascinating. But, he decided, it would only be fun if Summer was with him. Wandering exotic locales at her side, that was how it was meant to be.

He smiled gently as he folded up the junk mail and tucked it right back in the envelope it came from, setting it with the others, even if it had been opened. Once he was more situated, perhaps, he'd go with her somewhere that was new, to her. Somewhere they'd both be a little lost and bedazzled, but they'd have each other.

He sank onto the couch with the thought of it, content as he resumed reading through her journal. She was afraid of caterpillars? What a curious thing to be frightened of... Apparently, she was terrified of the idea of their change into a butterfly, as if that violated all rules that should be.

He glanced down at himself, raising a hoof and waving it a little. What was he, if not a furry little caterpillar, bursting free into a new, horned, adult form? Sure, he was easier to hug than a little bug was, and less likely to be smashed to bits afterwards, but what was the difference really? He lifted his shoulders softly as he flipped onwards, eager to absorb all the little facts he could glean from the book.

Winter skipped to the end on an urge, wondering if he had been written about. There. She had heard about the possibility of having a pony, or kirin in that case, pulled out of nothing. She was excitedly writing about saving bits up to afford the trip to Manehattan, and to the mare that could make that miracle happen. Summer was going on and on about the features her perfect kirin boyfriend would have.

"I'm home," came a call from the front, a door closing a moment later. "Have you been good?"

Author's Note

A day apart, but Winter spent it trying to get closer to Summer. He has a lot of thoughts. In this chapter, the only lewdness is an invasion of privacy.

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