A New Life and a New Home.

*No copyright intended. All rights to their respectful owners for any materials in this chapter.*

"And they all lived happily ever after. The end." Miles put the book by the bedside table. "Dear god that was terrible."

"Hello again, Miles. How are you feeling?" The doctor opened the curtains surrounding his bed.

"Same as five minutes ago when you came by." Miles said irritated.

"Someone's moody. whats up?"

"Fluttershy has been gone for hours and its already four o'clock. You also keep coming in constantly asking the same damn things."

"Well-"

"No. I tell you every time you come in here; which is every five damn minutes, that I will not sleep with you. You have come in one hundred and fifty six times. I know. I counted." Miles ranted.

"Well-"

"I don't know if you actually want it that bad or you're just messing with me. You haven't even let me put my clothes back on. I'm sat naked on the lower half of my body and you keep taking quick glances thinking I don't notice but I do. Yes I do."

"I take that as a no?"

"I'm back." At that moment Fluttershy hovered into the room. "Hope you had fun while I was gone." Fluttershy kissed his cheek.

"Tons." Miles deadpanned.

"So how is he doc?" Fluttershy looked at a heart monitor hooked up to Miles' chest.

"Hes fine now. No reason to stay here. Just sign this form and you can go."

Signing the form and putting on his clothes Miles glared at the doctor before departing back up to his room accompanied by Fluttershy.

"Before we go back to your room I need to speak with Black-sun for a moment." Fluttershy pulled Miles round a corner by his hood.

"Yeah. Sure."

Entering the throne room Miles and Fluttershy stood by as Black-sun sat on his throne with Spike sat on the arm watching the court jester perform stand-up comedy.

"So, whats the deal with hot air balloon food?" The jester joked with furious laughter coming from Black-sun, Spike and the guards in the hall.

Shaking his head Miles leaned against the door as Fluttershy spoke with the king. "No, not at all. I'll set up another room for him tonight." Black-sun spoke loud enough for all the hall to hear. "I mean, yeah. Whatever you need." Black-sun's voice quietened.

Returning to Miles, Fluttershy pulled him back into the halls and up the stairs. "So what did you say to Black-sun and who is getting their own room tonight?" Miles tried to keep up with the floating pony.

"I asked Black-sun to see if you and me could have the rest of the day and night to ourselves."

"So I take it Spike is getting his own room tonight?"

"Yup. Just you and me until tomorrow."

"What are you going to tell him we're doing? And for that matter, what are we doing?"

"Spike was told we just need some alone time because its what you do in a relationship."

"Ooh."

Entering their temporary home away from home. Miles shut the door behind him and stood against the door. "So what do you want to do?" Fluttershy asked whiles searching through her saddle-bags placed in the bed.

"I think we can start with this." Without warning Miles lunched forward putting his middle finger deep inside Fluttershy causing her to shriek in surprise. "Lets start were we left off."

"Ahahahahahaaaaa....." Fluttershy's laughter was low and masculine.

"Fluttershy? Is something wrong?" Miles kept his finger buried inside.

Turning her head round she stared blankly into his eyes. Her eyes were white and glazed over as if she were blind. Before anything could be said Fluttershy's head rotated 360° before falling off and rolling on the floor. Miles just stared in shock and horror as where Fluttershy's head once was a small antler and a horn pooped out of the neck hole.

"What the fuck?" Miles moved his mouth but no sound came.

The antler and horn rose further from Fluttershy's neck followed by a brown head with yellow eyes. "Hello Miles." Discord's head gave a toothy grin causing Miles to freak out and kick Fluttercord into the wall across the room.

"Discord?! The shit?"

"Yes its me. Surprised?"

"WHAT THE HELL?! You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Your reaction was priceless." Discord laughed maniacally.

"But..but I put my-" Miles looked down at his finger as a orange goop ran down his hand. "You're just sick!" Miles spoke with disgust.

"I know. I try."

"You went through all this trouble of pretending to be Fluttershy, arrange an extra room for Spike and bringing me up here? What were you planning on doing?!"

"I needed to speak with you."

"What are you doing here?! If Fluttershy finds out that she picked me up from the infirmary she will catch us!"

"Relax, this is a dream. You're unconscious on the bed."

"What? How? when? Why?......I can't even."

"Stop panicking. You've only been out for five minutes." Discord returned to his natural form.

"When did you put me out?"

"Just before the doctor came in. She thinks you're sleeping."

"You're freaking nuts. Wait, that means you must have seen me half naked. Oh dear god." Miles cried into his hands over dramatically for extra effect. "And that means I fingered my best friend! End me now."

"I agree, that is rather disturbing. Anyway, we have business to attend to."

"And that would be?" Miles wiped his hand on the bed sheets recovering from the realization rather quickly.

"Here. Take this. You'll need it." Discord handed Miles a shotgun. "We're under attack."

"Whats going on?" Miles inspected the gun. "It feels real."

"Zombies. They're attacking the castle. We get three lives, pain feels real but anything that happens in here won't happen in real life so don't worry, and first one to lose their lives loses. The objective is to get the boss that is in the throne room and defeat it."

"Holy crap. This is awesome. But you have powers and so do I. It'll ruin the game."

"Fear not my weak little friend, the game is random so you can find weapons, medical kits and ammo along the way. Heck, even the enemies randomize. I'm also stopping the use of powers whilst playing to keep it fun."

"So you're telling me that we can both die in here but are fine in real life, the game is random so even you won't know whats going on and there is a boss?"

"Yes, I don't know what the enemies will be like, nor the bosses or weapons. Also, I'll be in my human form when playing."

"What happens if one of us loses all our lives?"

"Become one of the undead."

"Lets rock."

"Before we go...." Discord turned to Miles.

"Yeah? Oh don't you dar-"

*BANG*

"Motherfucker." Miles shouted as his head grew back.

"Couldn't resist."

"Neither can I." Miles fired a shell into Discord's stomach killing him instantly. "Lets go now."

Busting through the door the two entered a hallway full of rotting undead griffons, ponies and humans. Firing their guns into the crowd the bodies dropped like flies with bits and pieces flying all over. The walls and floor stained red with blood and pink with brains.

"This. Is. AWESOME!" Miles put the barrel in a zombie pony's head and pulled the trigger sending brain matter around the hall.

"Indeed it is. We need to do this more oft.....MILES LOOK OUT!"

Before Miles could turn a zombie human bit into his right leg. Miles screamed in pain as the zombie bit and tore into the flesh revealing a large portion of bone.

"Discord!" Miles cried out.

"Hold on!" Discord shot the feasting zombie as a small container fell out of its head. "A med-kit. Use it." Discord continued shooting zombies flooding the hallway.

Opening the container Miles pulled out a syringe and injected the contents into his arm instantly healing his leg. "The hell? Game logic I guess."

As the duo fought their way down the hallway they came to a fork in the road where they could go either left or right. "Which way do you want to go?" Discord shot the last zombie.

"Well we've cleared all zombies away from here. There's bound to be more either way we go so lets just go left and see where it takes us.

*Thud*Thud*Thud*Thud*Thud*Thud* A nose came from the left hall gradually getting louder.

"What the fuck is that?!" Miles whispered quietly as not to attract attention to themselves.

"A tank. A left for dead tank." Discord shook.

"Oh shit! Go Right! Go right!" The two ran down the hall away from the beast. "Why is that in here?"

"Shits and giggles." Discord said flatly. "I said it was random. So this is whats here. Nothing we can do other than run from it or kill it."

"I swear somehow I'm going to get sued for this. A lawyer is going to come to Equestria, sue me, and go home."

"Shit happens. Its only for a bit of fun." Discord panted running for his two lives.

Looking over his shoulder Miles saw the tank gaining on them at an alarming rate. "Round here. There is something glowing at the end of this hall." Miles pointed to a golden glow emanating from a metal box.

"Is it a power up?"

"Do you really think I'm going to know that? You know more than me."

Running down the hallway the tank caught up to the fleeing two and swiped repeatedly eventually slamming Miles in the wall and continued running for Discord. "Run! I'll keep it here!" Miles shouted firing a few shots into the tanks head.

Miles only managed to enrage the tank as it turned around facing him. "Crap." Miles fired shot after shot into its face doing little damage.

Reaching the metal box Discord opened it resulting in an alarm sounding from all around calling the tank back to him. As the tank turned away from Miles and back to Discord he pulled out a air of boxing gloves. "Boxing gloves? Great."

As the tank approached it punching at Discord. As the tank brought his fist down Discord countered with a punch of his own to the tanks incoming fist shattering it into pieces. The tank reared back in pain before being punched once more in the face stunning it. With one more punch the the chest the tank was on the floor bloody and broken but still trying to fight.

"Say nighty night." Discord brought down his fist and crushed the thanks head under it. Brains and blood spewed outwards upon impact covering him and Miles.

"That was surprisingly easy. Lets have a look at those." Miles took one of the gloves off Discord. "Super mega ultra fucker-upper. Sounds deadly."

"We still have two lives each right?" Discord looked at the glove on his hand with interest and curiosity.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Miles placed the glove on his right hand.

"On my mark." Discord brought back his arm ready to strike. "Three...two...one...Now."

"Falcon Punch!" Miles and Discord punched their gloves against each other obliterating the two.

As they re-spawned feet from where they died nothing but a cloud of red mist remained where they previously stood. Picking up the gloves Discord put them behind his back and into his inventory.

"Where did you put those? You put your hand behind your back and they disappeared."

"My inventory."

"Forget it. No use trying to figure out how you defy physics."

*Uuuuunnnngg*

As they looked from where they came the two could see hundreds of zombies approaching. As the horde of undead drew closer the living two ran though the halls turning randomly through the halls in hopes of losing their pursuers. As Miles and Discord ran round a corner they became trapped at a dead-end. The duo crouched in the shadows under a stained glass window as the mob walked past the hallway in their search for flesh.

"Phew." Miles wiped his brow. "The realism of this game us unbelievable."

"I know. Its awesome. We could patent this games if VR becomes popular. Hungry hungry zombies."

"Ah crap. One of them has spotted us. I'll get it." Miles got up and walked hurriedly to a small filly zombie staring at them.

"Don't shoot. You'll alert them. Snap its neck and sever the brain stem."

"Come here. I'm not going to hurt you." As Miles approached he could make out some defining features of the undead pony. "Sweetie-belle? You based a character on her? Thats downright evil." Miles scorned over his shoulder looking back at Discord.

"Yeah. I wanted to see your reaction. I gave that one a special feature. I can't remember what it was though."

"WHOOP" WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP!" Zombie-belle screeched.

"Now I remember." Discord shouted enthusiastically "It alerts the zombies to its location when it finds someone. Oh."

"WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP!"

"Shut up you little shit!" *snap* Miles broke its neck and dropped it to the floor. "Now what?"

*GGGRRRR!!!* The horde flooded towards them.

"We stand and we fight."

*Thud*Thud*Thud*Thud*Thud*Thud*

"On second thought. Screw that." Discords face went pale.

"Towards the window. Jump through it!" Miles fired shots into the crowd dropping bodies left, right and center.

Running through the hall toward window Discord ran head first shattering the glass. "LEEROY JENKINS!!!"

"WEEEEE."

*CAW!"

Free-falling to the ground Miles turned as a zombie griffon swooped down for an easy meal. Firing a shot into its skull it fell towards the ground faster than both him and Discord landing with a thud as it impacted the ground. As the body hit the floor it brought unwanted attention to its whereabouts and to the rapidly descending

"Well, game over." Discord looked at the mass of zombies below them gathering around the dead again griffon waiting for their lunch.

As the two grew closer to the floor and the hundreds of zombies merged to where they were destined to land. Amidst the flesh-eating creatures was a small green and white orb. "Give me one of the gloves. I have an idea." Miles shouted to Discord.

Reaching behind his back Discord threw one of the gloves over to Miles. Catching the glove he put it on and Miles put his arms to his sides making him more aerodynamic and reach terminal velocity quicker. As the ground became closer Miles posed like superman with a fist out in front impacting the floor on top of the green and white orb. Upon impact a colossal shock wave spread out sending zombies high into the air or destroying their bodies as well as killing Miles sending his limbs around the immediate vicinity.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Discord yelled as his path of descent sent him into a nearby tree. As Discord fell out of the bottom he landed on his foot severing the Achilles tendon and snapping his ankle.

"Shit. We don't have anymore lives so I can't shoot you. Bear with me and  I'll get you a med-kit."

"Hurry!" Discord howled in pain.

As Miles searched the area for anything to help his fallen comrade another swarm of zombies emerged from the ground as well as from behind trees and bushes. "Too damn cliche." Miles shook his head.

Making his way back to Discord, zombie after zombie tried to feast upon him but only succeeded in eating lead. "Did you get anything?!"

"Nothing. I came back to make sure you didn't get eaten."

"Its too late. There is too many of them and ammo is short. Its game over man. Game over."

"I have an idea. Don't give up yet."

Putting his gun in his inventory Miles walked up to the approaching undead mob but stopped about fifteen feet away. "Alright. Here goes nothing. Cause this is thriller! Thriller at night!" Miles danced to his singing.

"Fucking idiot." Discord mumbled. "Wait a minute. Its working! Keep doing it!" Discord cheered.

As the zombies danced along with only the odd limb falling off Miles called back over. "What are you doing? And no one's gonna save you. From the beast about to strike." Miles continued to sing keeping the zombies at bay.

"I'm going to kill them whilst they're busy and see what pops out."

"Do it quick. I only know so many lyrics to this song. You know it's thriller. Thriller at night"

As Discord limped around the back of the horde shot after shot was fired into the living undead in hopes for a med-kit or extra life.  Zombie after zombie dropped but with no such luck as to finding what he needed.

"You're fighting for your life. Inside a killer. Thriller tonight, yeah."

One more zombie down and another without a gift. Eventually, as the crowd thinned a human zombie in a white lab coat covered in blood, brains and guts became visible in the dense crowd. Blasting its head away Discord searched through the pockets and found a small metal box.

"I got it. Lets kill the last of these and then I can use it." Discord began taking pot-shots at the raving zombies.

As the numbers fell and the zombies dropped, ammo shortages became painfully apparent. With no more ammo left, Miles resorted to his one boxing glove. Throwing punches left and right the number of zombies dwindled down and eventually the area was cleared.

"Heal yourself. I'm going to do a quick search for any weapons that might be around here."

"Sweet sweet medicine." Discord opened the box finding a needle and a note written in blood. "Warning random side-effects may occur. Use with caution." Discord screwed up the note. "Screw that. I'll use this however I want."

As Miles returned from his search wielding no prize he sat against a tree resting for a moment. "You feeling better?"

"Yup. Although there may be some side-effects with this needle. Did you find anything?"

"Nothing useful. But I did find this." Miles reached behind him and pulled out his severed arm from his previous life.

"Your arm? Speaking of which, how did you come back alive afterwards? You had no lives left."

"I landed on a one up mushroom."

"Lucky git." Discord walked about testing his foot. "So whats the plan? We have no ammo and we can't take on an army with just these gloves."

"Well dying isn't an option so I'm thinking we could sneak around and try and find some weapons."

"As good a plan as any."

As the two walked round to the back of the castle, zombies could be seen through the windows of the castle mindlessly wandering through the halls going nowhere in particular. Peering in through an open window, Miles climbed in closely followed by Discord. "Shh. Listen. Zombies that way." Miles pointed down the hall.

"Lets go up there. I got a feeling we'll find something." Discord crouched running through another hall.

As they ran through the halls managing to avoid attention being drawn to them they suddenly stopped after hearing a familiar sound.

*Thud*Thud*Thud*Thud*Thud*Thud*

"We'll have to kill it quick or we'll have a massive swarm of zombies too." Miles called over to Discord.

As the tank approached, Miles and Discord lured it down the hall into a 'T' shaped end. As Discord went right and Miles went left the tank stayed central. Taking his chance Miles ran and punched the tank backwards into Discord. "Discord! Go Mike Tyson on his ass."

"Who?" Discord ducked to the side dodging an attack from the tank before returning with an attack of his own.

"When this is over I'm showing you the best bits of my world." Miles punched the tank back over to Discord.

After playing tank tennis for a few more punches the tank stopped short of being hit once again. In a fit of rage it slammed its gigantic fists onto the floor shaking the hallways and cracking the walls, ceiling and floor. With a quick nod between Miles and Discord they punched the gloves into the floor increasing the cracks and damage. One more punch and the floor fell through taking the tank with it down into a seemingly endless pit.

"Thank goodness that is over with." Discord wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"You can say that again. But looks like we got company." Miles glanced down the hall from where they came.

Without warning the ceiling collapsed between the two creating a wall of rubble too big to be moved by hand. "Stand back. I'm going to punch through it." Mile shouted over to his friend. A quick punch the rubble only caused more to fall into its place. "Its no use. Meet back in the throne room ASAP."

"Got it." Discord shouted back.

Running through the halls Miles stopped checking rooms as he went by for any weapons. Door after door, room after room brought nothing but dust and disappointment.  "One more door and then straight to the throne room." Miles said to himself. Checking one more door Miles flicked the light switch hoping the castle still had power.

Walking into the dark room he found a small dust covered chest under a cabinet with scratches and bites on it.  "Uh-oh." Miles ran for the door as it slammed shut locking him in. "Crap." Miles deadpanned.

As Miles searched the dark room for anything lurking in the shadows he felt a drip on his shoulder. Looking up Miles came across a shocking sight. Hanging from the ceiling was nearly enough to bring him to his knees. "No, how could they have made a zombie of you. Spider-man, no."

Lowering itself from the ceiling it flipped onto its legs and walked menacingly towards the frightened living human gaining speed. Running towards Miles at lighting fast speeds Miles threw his fist straight at his head destroying it instantly. "Well, that was rather ant-climactic."

*click*

"Who's there?" Miles tuned to the door.

Peering round the door Miles saw a little moldy, orange filly glaring at him with hunger in her rotten eyes. Closing the door slowly Miles walked over to a dusty chair and placed his head into his hands. "I can't kill her. What am I going to do?" Miles talked to himself no noticing the small zombie walk next to him. "Ah crap."

"AWOOGA! AWOOGA! AWOOGA! AWOOGA!"

"For fuck sake." Miles stomped on its head.

Creeping out into the hallway Miles peeked round the door looking down the hallway for signs of zombies coming to eat him. A quick jog down the hallways Miles heard a noise coming from behind.

*Thud*Thud*Thud*Thud*Thud*Thud*

Running as fast as he could down the hall Miles turned a corner and straight into a random room. As Miles waited silently in the dark room wondering about his fate and if he would be brutally murdered or spared he breathed a sigh of relief as the sound of death on legs ran past. Turning the light on to the room Miles discovered he was in a restroom covered in cobwebs and a bathtub full of blood and dismembered limbs.

"Thats awesome, yet gross." Miles dipped his finger in.

Taking a whiff of the bloodbath and a quick vomit Miles backed away from the tub and covered his nose with his shirt. Walking up to the toilet Miles whipped it out and started taking a pee. "wait....won't I pee in real life?" Miles thought out loud to himself staring at the ceiling covered in spiders and webs. Looking down a large hand shot out of the bowl straight for him.

"Holy crap! Fuck that!" Miles ran out into the halls and into a yellow filly with red hair. "Oh screw you. You're not getting your friends."Miles brought his foot down upon her.

"Wait, a'm not one of-" The small filly was crushed before she could finish.

"Nice trick." Miles ran down the halls back to the throne room.

Reaching the throne room with not too many close encounters, only fifty, Miles waited for Discord to turn up. After fifteen minutes passed Miles started becoming irate. "Screw it. He's probably dead."

Kicking the throne room doors open Miles walked in a paces before the doors close behind him. Wearing the one glove he had Miles stared towards the end of the room as an empty throne sat there motionless. After a few seconds the ground shook and a black fog filled the room.

"What is this?" Miles choked and coughed.

As the smoke cleared six small figures stood in the center of the room. The light coming into the room through the stained-glass window bathed everything in a rainbow of colours. The six figures stood side by side eyeing their self delivered lunch.

"Pinkie, Fluttershy, Twi, AJ, Rainbow, Rare, we can talk about this." Miles walked backwards slowly.

"Oh, he wants to speak with us. And after he killed so many of our pets." Zombie-Pie spoke with malice.

"Shall we call our other pet?" Rari-corpse hissed.

The ground shook once more as a large dragon hovered outside the window. With one flap of the wings it broke through into the throne room and landed behind the dead six. The beast positioned its skeletal tail in front of the group protecting them from anything that may happen. The dragon was immense in size, Its body was purple with a dark green underbelly and  had holes in its wings.

"Let me guess. Spike?"

"Mmmm. Lunch." Spike spat a fireball at him.

Dodging out of the way Miles recovered and hid behind a marble pillar. "oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap." Miles though to himself.

As Miles took refuge behind the pillar a voice could be heard from outside the window. "YAHOOOO"

"Make way bitches!" Discord swung into the room on a long, old, weathered rope.

Dropping from the rope and into a roll discord got to his feet firing hundreds of bullets into the mane six. Bullets ripped through their flesh and through their skulls killing them instantly but leaving Spike still standing. As Spike reared onto his back legs he dropped back onto all fours in an attempt to squash him. Fireball after fireball flew out of the dragons mouth aimed at Discord. As Discord ducked and dodged the incoming projectiles he pulled out an RPG and fired into Spike's open mouth.

"Another one bites the dust." Discord danced about.

"Whoa there. Calm down Rambo. You got them."

"Gimme fifteen ma brotha." Discord held his three hands up.

"You have an extra arm. How?" Miles recoiled slightly.

"I took the injection and it made me grow an arm out of my chest. Pretty neat huh?"

"I'm not touching that." Miles stepped backwards. "Also, what the hell? The boss was way too easy and you had all the fun."

"indeed it was."

"And another thing. The game has been won. Why haven't I woken up?"

"Well, you see, they weren't the final boss."

"What?! Then who is?!"

"I am." Discord swung his fist into Miles' face.

"You cun-"

As Miles' headless body slowly slid down against the marble column Discord laughed maniacally to himself. "I guess that was a bit unfair."

"You can say that again." Miles walked up to Discord. "That was cheating."

"I forgot you turned into a zombie when you lose all your lives. I can even see your brain. And i had to prepare you to be ready for anything."

"So this is a training exercise?! Oh hold on a sec." Miles chased his brain as it feel out of his head and rolled around on the floor.

"Yep. And you failed. Now then, time to wake up."

"Hold it! How long have I been out?" Miles placed his brain back in his head. "Do you have any tape or glue?"

"Its eight in the afternoon and Fluttershy has fallen asleep on top of you. Have fun."

"Thanks man. We need to do this again sometime. But without you killing me."

"I'll make sure we do."

As Discord snapped his fingers Miles slowly awoke to Fluttershy's head resting against his chest. Slowly nudging her to wake up she sat up right with a loud yawn. Looking into each others eyes they shared a passionate kiss as the doctor opened the curtains.

"Finally. I thought you two would never wake up."

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be a bother. You could have asked me to leave if you needed." Fluttershy hovered onto the floor next to her shopping bags.

"No need. You weren't bothering anyone. I just thought you might have liked to be in your own bed tonight."

"And is there any particular reason why she might want her own room tonight? I've already told you that it isn't happening with you."

"Well I had a sign you might want to be in private with each other."

"What do you mean?" Miles looked down. "Oh dear god."

"You've had a stiffy for about three hours now."

"Can we not talk about it. I didn't know I had one. And you better not have done anything while I was asleep."

"Don't worry, I didn't. Fill this form out and you can go." The doctor handed over the forms.

As Miles signed the forms the doctor took the sheet and filed it into her desk. As the doctor walked past the two  a small piece of paper fell out of the doctor's lab coat. picking it up Miles glanced at it before glaring down at the doctor.

"Ahem!" Miles cleared his throat loudly catching the doc's attention.

"Yes? Oh my how did you get that?"

"None of your business thats how. But you can bet I'm taking this to Black-sun first thing tomorrow."

"Please don't. I'll do anything."

"Too little too late." Miles stormed out the room.

"What was the photo? You look really angry." Fluttershy leaned in to take a look. "Oh my." *pomf*

"Sneaky bitch." Miles grumbled.

"That whore better not try and touch you or I'm gonna-" Fluttershy yelled.

"Whoa. Lets just take it to black-sun in the morning.Ok?"

"Ok then. Lets go to bed. I'm really tired. And if Spike isn't there, we can try some of the stuff I bought today. Tehehe." Fluttershy licked her lips slowly as she calmed down.

As the two entered their room Spike was already fast asleep in his own bed. "We can try them tomorrow." Yawned Miles.

Climbing into their bed Miles and Fluttershy wrapped their arms around each other as they relaxed in each others embrace as they slowly drifted to sleep.