I looked at the rectangular metal tray in front of me. Parts of the tray were sectioned off for different servings of food. Speaking of food I was given things like flowers, fruits, hay, and a roll. So I have a tray full of food and I can only eat half of it. Picking up an apple I began to eat it while looking around the building I was in.

It was rectangular with long rows of tables made out of treated wood. Each table had a section of staff. It was as if it was divided up by, by goddamn what was the word. Fuck the one that was like. It meant different groups. You had the royal guard in one area, members of the Wonderbolts not too far from them, general staff in another, support staff for the royal guards like the blacksmiths and enchanters, and what looked like Celestia’s personal student/staff. I don’t know to be honest as I’m only assuming that because that is where Sunset took off for immediately when we arrived, to get as far away from me as possible I assume, and they looked to be similarly dressed.

As for me, I’m with the Royal Support Crew.

“So Sean was it,” Golden said from my left with Crystal on my right, “How dig’ya get here?”

Cliques that what it was called.

“You picked me up like a sack of potatoes and carried me,” I said through a bite of an apple. Golden let out a bark of laughter before she re-asked her question.

“Ah meant here in Equestria.”

“I think that’s classified right now,” I told her, “I’m not sure Cel-Princess wants that information out there yet.”

Golden nodded her head before stuffing her face with a large portion of hay. Her eyes lit up for a moment before she looked at me with sly eyes. “Ya almost called the Princess by her first name,” she said leaning down toward me her lips mimicked her eyes. “Are ya perhaps closer to her, like a lover.”

Lover!

“I, uh, um, no,” I stumbled out as I looked down at my tray.

“Please stop pestering the guest,” Crystal spoke for the first time since we sat down. “From what I have heard, he is a friend of the Princess and nothing more.”

“Sure tha’s what they want us to think,” Golden countered and I felt her eyes drill into me.

“We are just friends, nothing more,” I answered as I finished my apple and put down the core.

Golden looked at my apple core with a confused look. “Aren’t ya gonna finish that?” she asked.

I looked at the core and then at her with a raised eyebrow. “No,” I said drawing out the o, “That will kill me.” I pointed at the seeds that were poking out. “Those are extremely toxic to humans.”

Golden’s eyes bugged out of her head and I heard a choke come from Crystal. My head snapped towards her to make sure that she was okay. I was just in time to see her drink some water. While I patted her chest Golden asked, “Uh just how much of that food there could you eat?” I didn’t answer just yet. I wanted to wait until Crystal was able to breathe normally.

“I’m so sorry,” Crystal said as she turned to me her eyes slightly watering.

I moved my hand so that it rested on her shoulders and told her, “It's alright, you didn’t know.” I then turned to Golden who looked sheepish as she scrapped the back of her head.

“Ah kinda feel embarrassed,” Golden said as she began to poke at her food, “We uh, both got the usual and uh…assumed,”

Huh, she loses a bit of the accent when she’s embarrassed. Where is she from originally?

“It's fine,” I picked up the roll which was warm and buttery, “I can eat the fruits and the roll.”

“Good going,” a new voice said before they took a seat in front of us. “Getting the Princess’s special guest poisoned and starving him, that should go well.”

I turned to the new pony to see a pegasus mare sit down. This one was more familiar to me.

Fleetfoot was a member of the Wonderbolts, a group of elite flyers that are a part of the Equestrian military. Although they are more known for their aerial shows that they perform throughout the year. Fleetfoot was a mare pegasus who had a compact body that allowed her to fly in the sky. She was currently wearing a bomber jacket over a skin-tight body suit. The body suit was dark blue with yellow jagged lines around her wrist with a big going down the center. She had light arctic blue fur and light grey main. Like really light to the point that it was almost white. Her eyes were slightly purple.

“The name is Fleetfoot, and I’m a member of the Wonderbolts,” Fleetfoot said as she placed her tray down.

I nodded to the mare, “Sean,” I said.

“Hey, it's not our fault,” Crystal spat out in her defense. “How could we know what was edible for him?”

“I don’t know, ask him,” Fleetfoot said with a smirk, “You know instead of sitting him down and fixing his plate for him.”

“Ma raised a proper mare she did,” Golden said as she snorted and stuffed her mouth full of hay. “Gotta make sure colts are well fed.”

“Sure,” Fleetfoot said unconvinced.

“So,” Crystal said a lightly louder than what would be considered normal. Then again what is normal nowadays? “You mentioned earlier that you were surprised at the ‘advanced technology’,” Crystal asked me, “What did you mean by that.”

“Well, I guess now that I think about it maybe advanced technology isn’t the proper word,” I began to pick at the different fruits as I tried to figure out what was what, “Where I’m from we mostly based ours on science rather than magic.”

“Really why not?” Crystal said as I decided to pick up what looked like an orange slice.

“Because we don’t have magic,” the words slipped out before I even thought about it.

“What no magic?! Then how do you function!” Crystal gasped out.

“How do you manage the weather?” Fleetfoot asked.

“How do you grow things?” Golden asked.

Well, at least the orange slice-looking thing was an orange, “Uh we just do, we don’t we just live with it, and we managed…?” I trailed off as I made sure to answer each of the questions that were asked.

“Where do you live?” Crystal asked/demanded, “Magic is everywhere is just a basic fact of life.”

Fuck fuck fuck fuck how do I answer this?

Uh… the internet.

That’s not going to work!

“Umm… classified,” I answered weakly realizing that this was probably going to be my ‘get out of jail’ card. A very used card.

“Not much of an answer there,” Fleetfoot said with a wave of her hand toward me.

I just shrugged and looked apologetically. “Sorry,” I said, “I just have to clear what I can and can’t say with the princess.”

“Ah guess it will have to do,” Golden said with a sigh.

“Sorry,” I mumbled out an apology

“Bah! It’s not ya fault,” Golden said with a wave of her hoof. “If you can’t say then you can’t say.”

To drive this conversation away from any more potholes I brought back the original subject of our discussion. “So tell me about those…dummy things?" I asked Crystal.

The unicorn finished her bit of hay before she explained, "The Royal Guard use them to train their sword fighting or their accuracy with arrows or magic."

"And that crystal thing that you put in them?" I asked as I grew more interested in these training dummies. Already I was wondering who I needed to talk to to get permission to use them.

Crystal nodded her head, "That's correct, although technically they are gems." The unicorn then got a forlorn look on her muzzle. I couldn't help but notice how expressive their faces were. With the big eyes and ears, it was almost easy to tell what they were feeling. "When the Crystal Empire was around we used crystals, we preferred them. You see crystals can hold a large amount of magical energy."

"While gems do not."

"Correct," Crystal nodded a small smile appearing on her muzzle.

I let that information sink in for a moment before I inquired, "So you use gems for everything?"

"Well not everything," Crystal said with a shake of her head, "you see even gems have more limitations other than how much magic they can hold. A gem can only hold one spell at a time. Those training dummies are extremely complex machines. They were created before the Crystal Empire disappeared and contain crystals."

"With crystals it's easier to enchant a complex spell on them and the crystals themselves can hold a vast amount of magic in them. Those dummies for example can move with pinpoint precision, and when they were created they had a learning matrix spell put on them as well. This allowed them to learn from the best sword fighters at the time. They were also given voice-activated commands so that the pony practicing could increase the level."

Holy shit, and we couldn't get one drone to do the same job over and over without killing itself.

"I see, so I’m guessing that you use gems to charge the crystals then?" I asked.

"Yes although it is unfortunate that most crystals that we have are already enchanted to the max so the amount of magic they can hold is greatly diminished," Crystal's face slumped as she let out a desperate sigh of a person who is done with life, "So they require constant charging."

So it also appears that once a crystal is enchanted it is one and done. Kinda like in Skyrim. Although…I wonder if I could create…

"Is it possible to absorb magic within the environment?" I asked.

"Yes, in fact, we have a contraption back in my office that does exactly that," Cyrstal said as she waved a hoof towards the general direction of her office, "It's how we recharged the gems that power the enchantments."

Then why haven't they thought about crafting a charging gem next to another enchanted gem?

“Then why don’t you just,” I waved my hand around while I tried to put words together. “Put in place a gem that absorbs the ambient magic and connect it so that it charges the gem?"

“Well, you see…” Crystal began explaining but began to trail off as her face turned thoughtful. Her lips pressed together as her eyes danced around reading something that we could not see. Suddenly, and without warning, her face brightened up as she exclaimed. “Buck me!” She stood up and yelled before she turned to me and pushed herself into me. This put me right into Golden Slice bosoms. Crystal then pressed her muzzle into mine and gave a long lick across my lips. “You bucking sexy genius!”

The enchanter then let me go and ran out of the cafeteria. All eyes looked towards the mare as she bolted towards the doors before they turned to me.

What the fuck was that?

I sunk lower into Golden who let out a chuckle. "Well butter my backside and call me a biscuit." Golden's voice vibrated through her which reminded me that I was curled up in her chest. I moved to remove myself from my spot when Golden slithered her arms around me. "I didn’t think that mare had it in her. To be honest I didn’t think she was interested in anything but her work.” I looked up and saw that the mare who held me was looking at me with a predatory smile, “I guess she has more of an…exotic taste.” Golden squeezed her arms slightly and partly smothered my head. "I can see the allure."

Buh…

This goddamn boobie monster is going to kill me!

"Haha," Golden chuckled as a furry finger trailed up my chest up to my chin. A shiver went down my spine at the action which caused Golden to chuckle again, "Don’t worry your cute little head about it. I’m just going to use this as a way to tease her later, and you if I get these kinds of reactions."

"Do you have time to mess around,” Fleetfoot said which distracted Golden just enough for me to slip out of her grip. “I know that the blacksmith got that massive order so she needs somepony to de-rust the guards' equipment.”

My face was flushed as I took a few moments to calm my heart.

Golden’s shoulder slumped as she let out a sigh, “You heard about that then,” she muttered before she poked at her at the remains of her lunch. “Not looking forward to that.”

De-rust? They must be using iron for weapons and armor. Man, this world is weird when it comes to technology. Well, I guess it's only weird because they have magic to supplement any weakness in technology.

“Do ya’ll use iron for everythin'?” I asked Golden.

“Yeah, we still use iron," the blacksmith's assistant said with a shrug, "It's not ideal but what can you do?"

“I’m guessing that you haven’t figured out a way to create steel?" I inquired as I eyed Crystal's abandoned tray wondering if it would be rude if I took her apple.

“Steel?” Golden chirped as I continued to stare at the abandoned food.

“It's what we used after iron," I said turning away from the abandoned tray and back to mine. "We discovered steel, stainless steel, titanium, and I think Tungsten, I’m sure I’m missing a few, and the latter two we used for heavy-duty stuff." I picked up my discarded orange peel and began to pick out the flaky interior before I popped it into my mouth. "We used steel for our weapons because of its strength and durability during battle.”

“Stainless steel?" Golden said her tone dropping to almost a whisper.

“Yea, it's a type of steel that doesn’t rust," I said with a wave as I tossed the orange peel back onto my tray. Without a second thought, I began to pile the flowers and hay onto Crystal's tray.

"Wait it doesn’t rust!" Golden blurted out suddenly.

Startled I turned to the blacksmith and said slowly, "Yes, as far as I’m aware."

I watched as Earth Pony's eyes began to widen as her lips began to pull up. “How do you make it?"

“I think you just mix like..." I trailed off as I tried to recall that particular information, "10 or 11 percent chromium? I’m not precisely sure as I’m not really a metal expert." I said with a shrug as I contemplated whether or not I should stack the trays up. "I just did a lot of research for stories."

"Wait, you mean chrome “ Golden said quickly as she picked up my unused spoon, “The same crap we use for this can be added to make things not rust."

"I’m not sure…" I stated with a shrug, "I mean I’m not a chemist or a blacksmith."

Golden then got right into my face and asked one more question, “How do you make steel?"

Unsettled slightly at the close proximity of the mare I was only able to sputter out, "Uh, I think you mix iron with carbon."

Realization dawned on Golden's eyes as her lips went into a full smile, "You are a sexy genius, “ she said as she grasped my shirt pulled my lips close to hers, and ran her tongue across them. She even dipped her tongue a little in my mouth. A hint of apples and cinnamon danced on my tongue. When she pulled back she had a predatory grin on her face, “Oh I’ma gonna keep you.” The mare then let me go and stormed out of the building.

Once again I was the center of attention by everyone in the cafeteria.

I blinked as I sat there shocked as I came to terms with the fact that I was not only kissed once but twice by women that I just met, well I’m assuming that was a kiss by pony standards. That’s…that’s never happened before.

They also called me good-looking.

Slowly I turned my body so that I was looking at Fleetfoot who had her face hidden behind her hooves as her body shook with laughter. “Don’t look at me lover colt,” she said in between giggles, “I’m already taken.” My eyes went over to where Sunset was to see that her eyes were on me before she snapped her head away in a huff.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay. I'm starting a new business and trying to start another side gig. Also, I got sidetracked by Helldivers 2.

Also, would you guys prefer if I keep pumping out chapters as they are done, or would you rather I get a bunch done and post them in chunks?