Author's Note

It's been a while, folks, but that's it — a chapter almost worth 24k words. It had blown somewhat out of intended proportions, but I didn't want to cut things or split it. A lot of work went into this one, starting from extensive worldbuilding, including dreamscape, magic, and the very first serious touch upon MC's biology and his own magic system. So yeah, I'm giving you a 'nerd alert' for the chapter, though I still tried to keep things simplier. Then it was also a good chance to take a glimpse on the pony society and norms through the conversations, so I took it. And last, but not least, the MC's attempts at bringing his love life in some sort of order. Wish him good luck with that.

Enjoy!

Chapter 17 - ...and a Hectic Morning

“This is… unbelievable! Me and Luna? I was sure it was impossible, but reality has a nasty habit of proving my assumptions wrong, while Sapphi was right… yet again.” This thought flashed through my mind in a split second, while we were still busy cuddling and making out. I’m not even sure how much time has passed, but I felt — genuinely happy, and all my worries were quickly evaporating into thin air. Luna was almost beaming with this very feeling which was telling me that everything is gonna be alright. The sensation I oh so lacked ever since I arrived on this strange magical dirtball, drifting somewhere through the immense expanses of the multiverse.

My hands were ever so slowly stroking her back, minding to avoid the sensitive spots around her wings. Something was telling me — right now Luna needed that pure and warm feeling of closeness, needed it more than anything else, so I avoided the actions which could escalate everything and possibly ruin it all. Her exhaustion was also obvious. Luna tried to hide it, but I could almost physically feel her — aura, perhaps. It seemed… weakened. Unstable. And it was fluctuating erratically. Though, as time passed, it became less and less noticeable, gaining in strength, and enveloping me in that strange, serene sense.

“Mmmm…” Luna let out a contented moan, which turned into a soft exhale. “I feel like I was resting for the entire night instead of just an hour, or was it two? Why is that I wonder?” She murmured into my ear.

“I don’t know, but that’s great, right?” I answered in a low tone, my fingers playing with a sparking lock of her ethereal mane. Despite its appearance, her mane is rather real and tangible. It’s very soft and slightly waving, but it’s shrouded in a mysterious sparkling and dark aura. The flow of magic waving through her mane is almost tangible, even in a dream.

“Yes, it is certainly true. It is always… always so weird when it comes to your dream space, Ray. The laws of the realm of dreams are getting twisted here. Just slightly. I cannot tell what exactly is different, but I like it. How wonderful it would be if I could spend every night like that, even if just for an hour… It is — so soothing being here with you. I don’t feel — out of place anymore. Before, I didn’t even realize it, but I, and my entire everyday life, were so… repetitive and distant to me. Yes, I was busy with important deeds, telling myself again and again that these are my duties. I was just hiding behind those duties, trying to deceive myself, all the while feeling myself,” — she paused, pondering, — “empty would be the right word, yes. Empty — in so many ways… And empty, I am no longer.” I felt her hug growing ever so stronger, but it was still gentle enough for me.

Luna released me after a while, her face all smiles, though it slightly waned as she spoke.

“You know, Celestia is quite eager to see you in person. She was torturing me for the entire evening, trying to fish anything interesting about you out of my mouth. And trust me, she is a grandmaster in such things, especially in riling me up.” Luna giggled. “But I owe you, for the rift between us is finally mending, rapidly so. It’s so good to feel she is truly by my side.”

“Oh, really? Well, I’m glad I could help, though I have no clue how I did it. You know, now that you mention it, her attention makes me — nervous.”

“Do not fret, I did not speak of anything — excessive. We can have our little secrets, can we not?” Luna said slyly, and the tip of her hoof unexpectedly booped my nose, a move used usually by me. Before now that is. My surprised visage amused her, making her giggle happily.

“But really, thank you.” Luna’s mysterious eyes seemed to look at the deepest recesses of my soul. “Yesterday, I understood that I’m really back, and my dear sister still loves me. We just had… a little misunderstanding, both of us… which lasted a few years, to our shame. I hope we can finally leave it all in the past and move on, like the good sisters we always were.” Her hoof was carefully caressing my cheek. “And it was you who broke the stillness of my life, creating sparkling ripples of change, like a stone dropped into a pond during a moonlit calm.”

“Uh… I’m flattered, Luna. You’re very poetic — nobody ever said something like that to me…”

Luna laughed lightly. “Just don’t tell anypony I did — I would rather keep my high and aloof image. May you consider coming to Canterlot for us to meet again, sometime? Though chances I will have any free time in the coming weeks are faint, I’m afraid.” She had let out a disappointed sigh.

“We’ll see, but we can always meet in the dreams, can’t we”

“But of course we can. Sadly, I will have to leave soon. The sunrise is almost due.”

“Yes, I know. Your moon business?”

“Yes, moon business,” she said, chuckling at my choice of words. “I don’t know when I can come again. I have a premonition that I won’t have much time on my hooves even at night.”

“Is it that bad?”

“I am afraid so. I need to start on reorganizing the Guard for Appleloosa during the daytime, and also that nightmare I found tonight concerns me. It will keep me busy during the night. It is an anomaly, a dangerous one. I shall try investigating where it came from, even if my efforts have little chances of success.”

I fell in thought for a moment. “What are — those nightmares? Or maybe the more correct question for now would be: what are dreams? Here, it’s nothing like what I was used to… before, in the world with no magic. At least, there was no known ‘dreamscape’, or anything like that. Everything was just a play of our own minds.”

Luna tapped her hoof on her chin, pondering. “A play of our minds, you say… Or so your people thought, without knowing a thing about mental magic, for dream magic can be called its branch. The mind is a gateway to the realm of dreams. Maybe I can offer a brief explanation until my time is up. The realm of dreams, otherwise known as a dreamscape, or a dreamland by simple folk, is everything what surrounds us right now.” She showed around with her hoof.

“Our minds can travel here while we are sleeping. The place we are currently in is a limited space built by your dreaming mind, and others have their own, too. Every such space is interconnected with each other in subtle ways, forming a dreamscape. Actually, I rarely delve deeper than the very surface level, when I can find gates into other’s dreams, and not much more is present there, aside from a vague reflection of the world.”

Luna frowned and tapped her chin. “But going deeper can be dangerous — it’s like a twisted mirror of our world, built somewhere just right beyond the very edges of reality by the wills and thoughts of its inhabitants out of pure magic, also referred as ‘aether’ in most ancient sources. Intangible and unreachable, ever-shifting and changing, it exists right beside us, yet out of our grasp, except for when we dream. Hopes and aspirations, moments of joy and happiness, notable memories of our lives, all of it is a building material for the dreamscape. Though not only that but also more sinister things, like fear, suffering, hate, despair, anguish… All of those seep through and take root there, falling into the deeper parts of the realm of dreams, over time forming malicious entities we call nightmares.”

I was taking in that information. Her explanations seemed quite understandable for a layman like me. “That’s… really complicated. And troublesome. Do positive things create anything as opposed to those nightmares?” I inquired.

“No, but, in a sense, they do. Positive things… we all keep them to ourselves, holding them dear. They make us stronger, and not just metaphorically. Perhaps it’s another manifestation of Harmony. But foul things? We all want to get rid of them, to forget them, to throw them away. So they often stay here, discarded and abandoned, descending into the deeper recesses of the realm of dreams. As time passes, this negative residue condenses, fueled by the emotions and thoughts it was created of, clinging to twisted fantasies and unkind thoughts floating through the dreamscape. Sometimes, such foul amalgamations gain a primitive sentience and start to grow, absorbing more and more of these fetid substances. As time passes, they grow in power and mind alike.” Luna’s distaste for the things she was describing was graphic.

“And as they grow, they become more clever, more aware. They learn to break the barriers and invade the dreams of living beings to torment them, feeding off their negative emotions, thoughts, and worries. Their favorite source of ‘food’ is little foals, mostly because the barriers of their immature minds are much thinner, and their naivety makes them easier to scare or otherwise exploit. Their minds can become traumatized if subjected to nightmares for too long. Thus, I have no tolerance for those abominations.”

“That’s disturbing.”

“Indeed, and it seems like in my millennia-long absence, their numbers had spiked, being left unchecked by my sister. Though I can’t blame her for it — while she can enter the realm of dreams, she has neither enough time on her hooves for that, nor sufficient talent for mental magic to do the job properly. Her talent in magic arts is more suitable for a direct and powerful approach. She is like a magical battering ram, or a tidal wave, which is exceptionally contrasting with her temper.”

“Does she have a soft temper?”

Luna giggled after pondering about something for a moment. “As long as you don’t pose a threat to ‘her little ponies’, she will be very nice and polite.”

Once again this phrase, ‘her little ponies’, baffled me: does her sister see herself as some kind of goddess for the ordinary folk, or a benevolent patron? That’s funny, but I won’t be the one to judge her. I’m kinda a weird guy myself, and I guess she has more than enough rights to call herself so, from what I already know.

Meanwhile, Luna continued, — “You know, we are quite opposite in this regard — me having an aptitude for more subtle magic, while my temper… Well, you might have heard the rumors about me, I don’t like playing nice before scoundrels and hypocrites, while Celly… She can be too kind, even if the other party outright disrespects her. I would never tolerate such audacity. A dungeon cell was usually able to fix their attitude rather quickly.” Luna chuckled.

“Yeah, she might be soft, except for the part where you were worried your sister would put me in a cage just to be safe.” I laughed internally, also making a mental note to never allow myself any familiarities towards Luna should we appear somewhere in public.

Luna sighed before continuing. “Thinking about it, I must say I had failed her horribly. My short temper might have been the very reason it could have happened at all, my weakness, a thousand years ago… But let’s not dwell on it for the time being. Right, nightmares…” Luna shifted our topic as we had already spoken about it quite a lot before, and I was pleasantly surprised that this time her mood didn’t turn depressed at the mention of this event.

“Should a nightmare grow powerful enough,” — Luna continued, — “it can possess a living being through their dreams, or even tear the very veil separating the dreamscape and reality and turn into an evil spirit, bringing woe to the world. I must prevent such happenings. It’s easier to destroy them before they can wreak havoc on the living and harm somepony for real.”

“And you’re doing all of this alone?” I asked with genuine concern, making Luna ponder for a while. “Well, this is disturbing. I better keep it in mind and pay more attention to such things, as it sounds too sinister for a world which is supposed to be built on harmony. Maybe it was left for too long without any supervision and something went wrong? Though I doubt I can help her in any way at this point, unless those nightmares… ‘manifest’ themselves. Even then, I might not be up to the task.”

“But of course. My sister aside, do you know any other dreamwalkers in Equestria? Because I do not.” Luna smiled wryly. “Even if there are some, are they powerful enough, or even willing to hunt nightmares? The hunter and the hunted might reverse positions, should the hunter’s mind or magic power prove to be too weak.”

“I see… This is quite a complicated situation.”

“Yes, it is. Speaking of that, I was pioneering dream magic for centuries. Most books on it in our library are actually written by my very own horn.” She sighed. “Dream magic is hard to learn without having a proper affinity for it. I always had an innate talent for mental magic, and my cutie mark empowered my talent for dream magic further. Even Twilight struggles with dream magic, despite her sheer talent in universal magic, much less ordinary unicorns. Honestly, their mortal lives are just far too short to understand all the intricacies of the realm of dreams, so… Oh…”

Luna’s countenance became perplexed as she trailed off. “Sorry, I did not intend to say it in such a way… I’m…”

“No, no, Luna,” — I took her hoof, which she had pressed to her chest, — “it’s fine. Haven’t we already talked about it last time?”

“We have, but… I just can’t… Can’t stop thinking about it. You know… about the inevitable flow of time.” Luna looked at me with a mix of… pity and compassion, perhaps?

An uncomfortable silence descended upon us, while certain thoughts rushed through my head. My visage tensed and eyes squinted slightly. I was too pressed, deciding if I should make an important decision now, too pressed to realize it was all written on my face, and Luna’s dejected visage had finally distracted my attention. “It won’t hurt telling her, I’m sure. At least that bit. She won’t make trouble for me because of this. I can feel it with my guts, and it will put an end to her worries.”

“It always comes to this… Sorry to ruin it all…” Luna said, her eyes emanating sadness and traces of the scars of her past.

“Luna… Listen, this… This is important.” I said with gravity in my voice, which I usually don’t show, looking at her. I waited until she raised her head back and our eyes met at last.

“What is it that you want to share with me?” She asked quietly, her voice, while weak and dejected, still gained a tiny spark of interest.

“I’ll feel terrible if I don’t tell you this. Not after seeing how sad you become every time we touch on this topic.” I inhaled the air, which I didn’t even need to breathe in this place. “I… remembered some things. Not too much, but enough to tell you something. Something crucial. M-m-mh…” I bit my lip as I thought harder. “How should I put it? I’m — much older than I appear to be. My mind is at the very least twice as old as I was at the moment I disappeared from my world, but that’s not the point. At the very core of the magic I possess is not, uh, aether, as you called it. It is ‘Life Essence’, if you need a name for it. This body of mine would never age, most likely, due to this fact, and my mind won’t break either from living too long of a life. My body had already reformed itself into this shape, going all the way from the withered and crumbling body of an elder, which it was at the moment of my arrival, to what you can see before you now.”

I stood up and spread my hands wide, to better show myself, while observing the emotions flashing through Luna’s eyes. She definitely remembers how I looked the first time we met in a dream, and the difference must be stark. In the middle of my tirade of revelations, I noticed Luna’s face stiffen, while her eyes appeared to be glazed over, not even blinking. Her ears stood at full attention, catching every word which left my mouth.

“For now, let’s put aside the reasons I was in such a bad condition back there.” Sour smile adorned my face as I remembered my initial state. “I am not an immortal, but I’m almost sure that the death of old age or illness is off my list, and I ask you to keep it a secret. No need for anybody growing envious of me over such things, lest one day I might face a grand scheme of some mad scientist or noble with an obsession to dissect and turn me into an elixir of eternal youth or something of the sorts.”

A pregnant pause descended on us. Luna suddenly flapped her wings, propelling herself from the sofa and landing right before me in an instant with a clack of her hooves. She looked me in the eye intently.

“P-pray tell, that this… that this is not… n-not a joke,” — Luna reared on her hind legs, bringing her face so much closer to mine, —“please?” she whispered almost inaudibly, putting her hoof on my chest, her voice flustered and wavering.

“Luna… How can I be joking like that? Do I look like someone who would play with your feelings?” — I replied, not breaking our eye contact, continuing in a lower tone, — “Besides, you always know when I tell the truth, or so it seems to me. So… you’ll likely have to bear having me around for a little longer than you expected.” The corners of my mouth lifted, forming a faint smile.

Luna made a few steps back, her wings flapping lightly, creating mild gusts of wind. Her eyes bore the look of amazement, as her eyelashes fluttered in bewilderment.

“I-I… Then… Then… Oh, my. Oh, stars!” Luna’s hooves were shifting continuously, as if she didn’t have the patience to stand still. The flow of the magic wind in her mane and tail turned into a raging storm as they fluttered wildly. The magic flow around her grew so intense it became tangible, swirling like a vortex around her and exuding noticeable pressure, like an actual wind. She spun around in the air, overjoyed, then shook her head, calming down the invisible storm around her. “This is a miracle… What good deeds did I do to deserve this?” She murmured quietly, but my ears still could catch her words. Her ears alternated between being splayed to her head and standing back upright.

“Luna? Are you fine?” Her behavior started to worry me.

Luna suddenly gasped, putting her hooves atop of her head. “Oh no, I’m already late to move the moon! No, no, no, I have to hurry, Ray, this is not a trifling matter!” She jerked towards the exit, then stopped, slightly slapping her forehead with her hoof. “Right, no need to run through the door.” She then turned towards me again. “I… I will come next night,” Luna told me in a resolute voice, pointing her hoof at me. “I will definitely come. Don’t worry about anything and don’t alarm your herd about us needlessly. They deserve some rest and peace of mind. We will talk later… and solve everything… together, of course.” She spoke in a hurry, fumbling with her words.

“Fine, Luna. I’ll be waiting for you. Now go, I’ll be alright.”

“Yes! See you!” Luna’s horn flashed brightly, but before she released her magic, she rushed to me, placing a quick kiss on my lips. Then, with another flash of bluish light from her horn, her figure just faded out, as if she was just a mirage, leaving me alone in my own dream space. Still, her expression at that moment was imprinted in my mind, and I can swear I could see the glistening teardrops in the corners of her eyes, but she looked so happy at the same time…

“Wow! It was totally worth it, both my spontaneous confession and telling her the truth. Luna is so cute when flustered, but my ‘romantic’ life just became even more messy…” That was all I could say at the moment, with a smile which refused to leave my face. I plopped back onto my couch, resting my head on a soft padded armrest, with my hands behind my head. Our time spent together occupied my mind.

“Ahh… I wish we had more time tonight,” I muttered to myself. I had so much… so much on my mind I wanted to tell her, and so much to ask her. Her knowledge of everything must be so vast, even if she missed the last millennia entirely. Spending our time together somehow soothed my worries and calmed the chaotic state I was in after the incident with the power gems.

My dream didn’t end, like I supposed it would, leaving me all to myself in my own little piece of dreamscape. Well, a chance to relax in the environment of my old home isn’t half bad, anyway.

“But her reaction… She must have been through a lot, and her heart bears scars no ordinary mortal can get over their entire lifetime. A thousand years spent alone on a lifeless ball of gloomy, dark dust, sand, and stone… It was even worse than alone, remembering that entity which tried to break her mind again and again.” Such a thought made me shudder internally. “I can’t change her past, but if I can make her present a brighter one, then I’ll do so with no hesitations.

“Why?” I asked myself and chuckled at this foolish question, unexpectedly realizing I usually had a lot of foolish thoughts. “Do I really need a reason to fulfill my desires? Is there anything that really chains me? I’m a disciple of ‘Life’, and I do as I want. I do as I feel right. Well, in addition to what I must, though I see no big contradictions here. Even if what I want is to love a princess, to become someone important to her, to make her happy, if it is what she herself wants...” I made a mental note about this change of my thinking patterns, though that was all I did, being quite content with this change. My thoughts didn’t feel artificial at all, like if I was used to such thinking, and that might very well be the case.

I remembered the first days with Sapphi; it was exactly those days when my freshly returned memories were merging with my mind, and I can recall clearly how my hesitations about her were quickly fading the further the process advanced. It must be the same this time. I wasn’t concerned about those changes — they felt too natural, like those changes in our perception and state of mind which we notice as years pass, when we look back and remember our past selves.

I definitely became more — arrogant. Hell, it’s hard not to, not when the only person you have around is the embodiment of the term ‘arrogant’. I chuckled at this thought. And he is my teacher to top it off. Well, the word ‘teacher’ might be an understatement, as he was, and still is, more of a ‘master’ to me. He is so much more than a mere teacher can possibly be.

And while somewhat arrogant I have become, neither have I grown complacent for it to cloud my judgment, nor dismissive to turn into an asshole of a man. More like knowing my worth. Maybe it has something to do with the fact Falda’ar did, sometimes even literally, beat the crap out of me, slowly making me pick up on his worldview and try to see things as he sees them. It vexed me at the start, to his amusement, I might add, until it somehow started to make sense at some point. So I don’t hold it against him anymore.

Putting an end to my rather distant contemplations and attempts at self-analysis, I was once again left with nothing to do in this conscious dream. It must not be long until Lily has to wake up, and by that time, I’ll probably have more than enough rest for the night. I shall give Sapphira some more time to sleep, and it might be useful for me to meditate for a while and revise my re-acquired memory while she is resting. There is really interesting information about my modified body hidden in this forgetful head of mine. I’m sure it’s there, but it will take some effort to find it at this moment.

But that’s that for the early morning. After breakfast, we planned to go to town once again. And this time I’m definitely going to the library. We passed it by yesterday, more than once, actually. It is situated not far from the town hall. I want to get familiar with the world’s geography first and the map of the countries second. It’s so irritating to have only a vague understanding of your location. Then, some short version of Equestrian history and the state of its current affairs might be a good option. And after that… guess I’ll try to find something on the more practical topic, namely gems and crystals. If just three of those were enough to crack open these memories of mine, then perhaps this trick can be repeated? We’ll see.

On second thought, forget the gems, as I’ll have more than enough memories to internalize and things to experiment and get once more familiar with. It will be unwise to seek more of my memories in the next few weeks. Also, considering my ‘primary discipline’ at the moment, I have a certain interest in literature describing pony anatomy and biology in detail, as well as their magical inner structure and its integration into their bodies. Oh, well, that’s a subject which will take days just to shuffle through the basics. If I can find books on that subject, that is. On the other hand, the basics are probably the only thing I would need — everything else I might get to know from the willing subjects. Their bodies will tell me everything, as long as I know what to seek and where to look. They’ll tell me more than any book on their anatomy might hope to, with just a wisp of my Life Essence put inside them.

Alright, back to the more mundane things. Sapphi wanted to visit the market, and maybe some shops, and I still have to go to meet Stout at the workshop. My new boots won’t craft themselves. That’s already quite a list. Oh, and the guys will probably come again today, though I don’t know when. No idea how they found me, but they did. I doubt it can be anybody else other than that trio from the station. That’s good news, as I certainly could use some male company. There is no better way to make certain things clear than a friendly chat with other guys.

What else? That shabby knife we forgot yesterday… No, it’s in such a terrible state I doubt the antiquarian would even look at it. At least it will be unwise to show up there the next day after our prior sale. Oh, yes, I just have to buy a large pot and some soil for it. Every day I delay growing ourselves a new tree will be a day we are deprived of superfood, so to speak. So—

My thoughts were interrupted by a high-pitched ‘ping’ sound. I looked around, but failed to notice anything, until a new, louder ‘ping’ resounded and echoed around me. On the third, even louder ‘ping’, the dream reality before me started to blur and fade. Then, after a brief feeling of a freefall, my body jerked slightly forward, or so I thought it did, and I found myself lying on a soft bed with my eyes closed.

Yet another ‘ping’, now distinctly coming from right beside me, forced my eyes to crack open slowly, only to see a membranous lilac wing outstretched toward the nightstand. Then a soft click followed, and the wing was folded back while I traced it with my eyes. “Eh, what? That fluffy warm feeling on my chest is not a blanket, no… That’s Lily. Was it her alarm?”

I smirked deviously as my hands unceremoniously snatched the fluffy pony into a hug and began gliding over her velvety and warm wing folds, eliciting a barely audible peep of surprise. Yes, a cute peep. It seems they really are somewhat related to bats.

“Morning, Lily,” I whispered, not to disturb others.

“Morning,” Lily cooed, rubbing her cheek on mine adorably, and igniting that warm feeling in my chest. I knew what it was, and I also knew I must fix that one mistake of a more timid ‘me’ from a few days ago. Lily’s ear was so conveniently close.

“Lily… I love you. I love you all,” I whispered quietly. “Yes, this is what she deserves to hear. This is what she always wanted to hear, but my spineless self had never said these simple words to her. How stupid of me. This is how I shall do things, directly and with no hesitations. I’d rather be solving problems I create by my own actions than lamenting later over those caused by my inaction or indecision.”

Lily’s considerably reddened face appeared in my sight, flustered, but happy, with cutely disheveled mane. “I-I… me too. I mean… I love you too, Ray,” she almost squeaked, and then her rather strong hooves clenched my body from both sides, while her wings made an impromptu dome above us, shielding our faces from any prying eyes. She leaned in, placing a multitude of kisses up my neck, then my chin, until she finally claimed my lips.

“That was… something! Something very unexpected from a girl like Lily, or have I misjudged her temper?” I thought while caressing her mane on the back of her head, with an occasional ear scratch here and there. All the while we were busy looking each other in the eye silently, or at least we tried, while our tongues were intertwined in a slow dance. Her tail swished between my legs wildly, forcing me to fight the coming arousal desperately, with partial success. That won’t be desirable, not this morning at least.

Lily sighed lightly after pulling her head back and waving her mane to straighten it out. “I have to get up now, or I’ll be late.” Her sheer unwillingness to do so was written on her face.

“Sure, let’s get up, then. I’ll help you with the armor and any other stuff, too.”

“You don’t have to—” Lily tried to retort, only to receive a boop on her nose.

“Nope. I do.”

“Fine.” Lily rolled her eyes dramatically, while obviously being happy to receive some care. Getting off the bed carefully, she made a few elegant, cat-like series of stretches, though this stretching also included her wings, too. When she turned to face me, I saw her chest tuft was even more puffed out than what Sugar showed me yesterday.

“Lily, you’re so fluffy I already have thoughts of dragging you back into bed,” I whispered almost inaudibly, but I was sure that for batpony’s ears, it posed no problem at all.

“Then I should do it more often,” she replied in a whisper with a coquettish look, trying to stick out her chest even more than it already was. Batponies and pegasi are obviously similar when it comes to flirting. And… is she picking those phrases from Sapphira, huh? She certainly is. Well, all the better, I like her playfulness.

“Great, give me more reasons to cuddle and spoil you.” Getting up, I looked at the two other girls. Surprisingly, Sapphira didn’t wake up. Moreover, she and Sugar were huddled together in their sleep. “Well, just look at these two.” I whispered, smirking.

Lily smiled, looking at the pair on the bed, then proceeded into the bathroom, while I got to dressing up. Some time later she called me over, silently waving her wing, using it how I would use my hand.

“Oh, I almost forgot what I wanted to tell yesterday,” I said, while brushing Lily’s puffy mane, sitting on the rug in the bathroom. She reacted with her ears flicking and perking up, harking. Our talk must’ve been muffled enough to not bother the sleeping girls. “I heard some rumors from the drunken merc on the street. Some ‘syndicate’, as he called it, appears to be hiring mercs and overall any rabble they can find for some shady business, and those folks disappear from the town without a trace after they agree, or so the rumors say.”

“Yes, we know it too, but yet no luck with planting our agents into their ranks. Every time the Shadow Guard tried to, our agents returned with their last memories wiped out. Obviously, it’s mental magic, most likely the basic one, but it’s already a crime worth a year or two in the dungeons. Considering they returned ‘safely’, without putting up a fight, our guys most likely agreed to it willingly to keep their cover, perhaps after turning down some terms the recruiters demanded. Silver works on another approach right now, and a mentalist from the Canterlot is already en route to Appleloosa, so we’ll know what happened there very soon when he restores their memories. Huh, now when I think about it, they are still sort of stupid, or clueless about our existence. If it’s the latter, then Shadow Guard does a great job here. They certainly aren’t expecting that another mentalist will be here to undo their magic.”

“I see. Mental magic, you say… According to the Princess, it’s quite a rare branch of magic.”

“Indeed, but we have no leads to tie it to any known mentalist. Also, this is very unusual for the Syndicate. This is not their method. They focus on shady trade deals and smuggling, preferring hiring a third party, bribery and blackmail as their main tools for a dirty job, which often leaves them out of reach of the law, cunning bastards… So we believe somepony is just trying to use the Syndicate’s name as a cover, and the complaints of some of their lower members in private talks are an additional proof.”

“Any ideas who that might be?”

“Nope. They are the only established group around these parts. We have a vague lead though, somepony reported seeing mercenaries leaving towards San Palomino desert which lies to the west, in the carriages pulled by donkeys who live there.”

“Hm-m-m. We’ve seen donkeys right after the rockslide offering their services as if they knew it would happen, but that would’ve been a damn idiotic giveaway.” I chewed my cheek, thinking this through, but my lack of any knowledge of geography and society didn’t allow me for any decent analysis.

“They are not the brightest bunch, so you might be right on that one,” Lily said, chuckling.

“Just be careful out there. I don’t like how this all sounds.”

“I promise to be careful. I’ve been on much worse assignments, trust me.” Lily beamed a smile.

“Yeah, I know, just saying… Thinking of the Syndicate, can that bastard — uh — Hookbill, was it? Yeah. Could he work for them? He obviously knew the time when the train would arrive, the fact it would be unguarded, and he also knew what car to target. Those bottles of booze were expensive if the quality of the crates was any hint.”

“More than expensive, those were outright luxurious. Ones of the best the minotaur kingdoms can offer, really. Well, I didn’t know it when we were there, and obviously the griffons didn’t either. This actually looks like what Syndicate would do. They hire some fools to do the dirty job to get their hooves on some expensive or even restricted goods, then they make fat bags of bits out of it all. Syndicate knows where to sell, to whom to sell, and how to avoid drawing attention. Should the small fries get caught, they will quickly realize the identity of the ‘employer’ was a fake, and all the blame will fall on them, keeping the Syndicate in the clear. Trust me, Silver tried to deal with them many times. The best Silver could do was lock some of their middle-level members behind bars. We don’t even know who the masterminds are, so we at best thwarted some of their deals, but it’ll be hard getting rid of them anytime soon.”

“So, they try to avoid drawing too much attention to themselves. Then, it’s unlikely they were involved in anything concerning the tunnel, I suppose, considering those griffons most likely didn’t know about the impending rockslide.” I mulled while my hands were busy making the finishing touches to Lily’s tail. “Any alteration in the train schedule might’ve ruined their plan.”

“We don’t have any solid proof yet, but I think so too. The rockslide happened too far from the place where they attacked, and if it happened some time earlier, the train might have stopped far before the spot where they prepared an ambush.”

“By the by, can that mentalist guy just crack their brains open and see who gives orders, or do something like that?”

“Are you serious, Ray?” Lily asked in a louder, indignant tone. “To use mental magic on any creature against its will would become a f— uh… a real torture. We don’t use such… evil methods… Unless… I don’t know for sure if the Shadow Guard had ever done it to anypony.”

“Ah, forget it, Lily. You know how much I know about conventional magic…” I replied, looking at her ears, which began to droop to the sides.

“I… I’m not angry, Ray. It was just — an unexpected suggestion, that’s all. I remember you don’t know much about pony magic,” Lily said with a tinge of guilt at her sudden outburst.

“It’s fine,” — I caressed her cheek gently, lifting her head so she could look me in the eye again, — “I’m glad you still have a soft heart, despite your line of work. And I think we’re done here with your tail.” The brush swept Lily’s tail for the last time, leaving the object of her pride in a neat shape. Well, at least I think she should be proud of it. “Let’s strap your armor and pack you up, then you can go to the kitchen and have breakfast before you go. Yeah, Boss said they’ll provide us the same meals as the personnel here if we want to, so it makes things easier for us, keeping in mind the lack of our own kitchen in this place.”

“Why is he so generous all of a sudden?” Lily frowned with one brow, raising the other, probably trying to sway our talk to another topic.

“Maybe it has something to do with me agreeing to provide some extra help if another angry minotaur shows up? Must be it.”

Lily made a joking pout. “Always doing things without asking us first. Stallions these days…” She giggled. “Well, that’s something you might do, anyway. Some free meals would be really nice. Then again, talking about the kitchen and all that… Should we rent a house some time later?”

“I don’t know, maybe. Let’s see how it goes first. We’ll have enough bits if we decide to do it, but I’d prefer to have some source of income before we splurge our savings.”

“Uh… look, Ray, I… I’m making enough bits to rent a decent house here. Well, not a rich one, but decent, so we don’t have to worry about bits too much.”

There was a silent pause in our talk while I thought through her words. “That’s great, Lily, but you don’t expect us to be just, uh, freeloading at your expense?”

Lily snorted. “You don’t have to see it this way. We are herd, aren’t we?”

“Well, yes, I think we are… a herd.” I rolled this uncommon term on my tongue. “Yeah, a herd. It’s just a completely new concept for me, so don’t mind me behaving a little strange.”

Lily chuckled. “Well, you’re not even a few days in Equestria proper, and it’s understandable if you won’t have a job for some time. Besides, you’ve made, like, several paychecks worth of bits yesterday. And if it makes you more comfortable, in some herds stallions don’t work, or they have part-time jobs to dedicate more of their time to their herds. It doesn’t seem to be common for Appleloosa, but what would you expect from the border town where more adventurous and robust stallions come to get their hooves on more bits?”

“Damn, I have never actually thought that disproportionate distribution of genders could have such an effect on society. Then again, the lives of ponies are nowhere near the line of ‘struggling’. At least the fact that nobody is living in constant hunger and without any kind of roof above their heads is a good proof of that. I’ve seen their gardens and their way of watering extensive areas. With opportunities like this, we would never have seen even a shadow of hunger back on Earth. Magic power is truly a blessing, though everything is bound to have the reverse side of the coin.”

Seeing me furrowing and relaxing back my brows as I was contemplating her words, she pattered, — “Of course you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. I was just… giving you an example. Nobody would think badly of you either way, especially not us.”

“Ah… Sorry Lily,” — I placed my hand on her withers — “just got a little lost in my own thoughts. There is no way in the world I’ll get grumpy just because you wanted to share your piece of mind.” After that, I witnessed the return of her magnificent ears, which she pressed to the back of her head.

“Is it that easy to read my mind?”

“Your pretty ears are selling you out every time,” I said with a chuckle.

“You really like my ears, don’t you?”

“Well, duh! Very hard not to notice it, after a—” A hug interrupted my joking sarcasm.

“So say, what do you think about renting the house in the end?”

“Well, we can talk about it together later. I just want to make sure we’re not making a hasty decision. I’m not even sure for how long we’ll be staying in Appleloosa. Well, we can do it if you really want it.”

“Alright, let’s go strap that armor. Or I’ll be late.”

“That’s unlikely. We still have more than enough time.”

The noises we made while fiddling with the armor had inevitably woke up Sapphira and Sugar.

“Morning,” Sapphira blurted, still half-asleep, barely opening her eyes. “Is it time already? How come I didn’t wake up to the noise?”

“Morning, girls,” I replied, seeing both of them waking up.

I looked at Sapphira, squinting my eyes. Something in her gaze seemed off, but I couldn’t tell exactly what was wrong. Perhaps she was too tired and needed more sleep?

“Morning,” Lily groaned quietly, too busy trying to wriggle one of her legs into a short sleeve. “How am I supposed to do it on my own? It’ll take hours…”

“Well, maybe not hours, but, anyway, that’s why I’m here,” I said in a calm tone as I helped her to do it with ease.

“Mmmmh… What time is it?” Sugar’s voice was similarly drowsy as Sapphira’s. She made a hearty yawn and stretched her forelegs, looking at the clock on a wall. “I guess I better get up and prepare for work.” She shook her head and rolled on her belly. “Somepony had too much cider yesterday… It’s a miracle my head doesn’t hurt.”

“Won’t happen with him around.” Sapphira lazily pointed her hoof at me, then went back to dozing off, putting a pillow under her head as a replacement for Sugar’s barrel.

“Huh?” Sugar made a puzzled look, then waved her hoof, dismissing it as a sleepy rambling. “Whatever that should mean, I feel awesome! Haven’t had such a good sleep in a while. Must be something about this big, soft bed.” She patted the bed sheets lovingly with a content smirk. “It’s better than mine, for sure.”

I was just listening to her babble while dexterously working on the straps and buckles of Lily’s armor, being already quite familiar with it after doing the same thing with Sapphi before.

“Umm… guys?” Sugar drew our attention. “Did I… you know… did something — uh-h — inappropriate yesterday, by any chance?”

“Don’t think so…” I shrugged.

“Maybe a teeny tiny bit,” Lily said teasingly, throwing Sugar an amused look.

“Oh, shucks! Then it wasn’t just my cider-induced imagination… Look, I’m sor—”

“Shush!” Lily interrupted her. “You did nothing wrong, and we were together, after all.”

“Really? Then… That’s fine, I think.” Her relieved look and slightly reddened cheeks made me ponder about their weird exchange once again.

Mentally sighing, I was distracted by my own thoughts, so the talk which girls started between themselves faded into background. I had to admit that it was a continuation of the stuff Flo warned me about. Even without me knowing it, it was obvious Sugar was seeking my attention the entire evening after I came back to my senses, using all of her arsenal, most likely typical for local flying equidae. It was kind of adorable, and I must add she had received quite a lot of that attention, all to her joy. Maybe it wasn’t exactly the type of attention she had hoped for, but we still had more than enough innuendos in our jokes.

Alright, I’ll give her time to digest it all and sort it out with herself first, and with Lily second. I have a hunch there is something going on between those two. No more forcing things. If it’s just a fleeting feeling, it will fade away quickly, and if not? Well, then I’ll have one more fluffy mare on my hands, I guess? But for now, I’ll have more than enough other things on my plate. Not even talking about the fact I go nuts every time Luna is around.

That’s so strange. I have to keep myself together around her, as my emotional state and usual rationality go haywire in her presence. And that adorable living magical reactor, and concurrently a local ruler, which suddenly became so lively and full of enthusiasm through our interaction, will come again the next night. I’m sure we’ll have another weird, but so pleasantly satisfying encounter. Ah, no matter, I should send girls to work and then get busy with my own things.

“Alright, Lily, this was the last buckle. Is everything fitting well?” I distracted them from whatever they were talking about, finishing buckling up the strap meant for holding the second saddlebag.

“Yeah, seems fine to me.” Lily moved her legs and wings to check it. “Everything is good, just one final check…” She proceeded to test her ‘bandolier’ belt on both of her bags, and it worked as intended. “Yes, I’m ready to go,” Lily said, nodding in approval. “Girls?” she called, approaching the bed. “See you in the evening.”

The three nuzzled with each other. Even Sapphira shrugged off her slumber to wish her good luck. Then it was my turn. Lily reared on her hind legs, reaching for a kiss, and once more hiding us behind her lilac wings. It wasn’t a long one, and soon our lips parted ways. She was already looking towards the open window to make her exit.

“One more thing, Lily.” I didn’t let her go. “Can’t let you go just like that.”

“Wha—? Oh…” Lily trailed off as my eyes momentarily flashed with green when I filled my dormant life essence circuits with power once again. Now it felt so easy, just like breathing, working steadily on the full capacity my current body allowed for, a habit brought to automatism by decades of practice. What I was going to do was apply the same lasting empowering effect, like that clumsy attempt I tried on myself back in the jungle, but it’ll be the first time I’ll use it on anybody other than me. The method itself is now deeply ingrained in my mind. It is rather elementary stuff, one with no side effects.

I carefully injected my energy through my hands, resting on Lily’s withers. I was careful to avoid her inner magic channels through the feedback the life essence was sending back to me. In fact, the feedback was overwhelming — such things as body temperature, blood pressure and even its composition, heartbeat rate, state of the nervous system, and many, many more, all flooded my mind. It was so much I had to filter it out. Thankfully, the knowledge on how to do it came along with the rest.

Regaining my concentration from this overwhelming torrent of information, I remembered my prior ‘experiments’ showed that the presence of my life essence disturbs the flow of magic if concentrated essence gets inside pony magic pathways, like it was with Sandy’s horn. Though this effect has close to zero negative effect if Life Essence is dispersed through the body evenly, because it’s being readily absorbed for a general benefit of the body if I don’t inject any clear intent into it, otherwise trying to execute its task.

The current task for the Life Essence was to strengthen Lily’s muscles a bit, but, most importantly, to recover her energy quickly in case she becomes exhausted and tired, and assist in closing up injuries should she get any. It might be excessive, but every little bit might help in case of force majeure. This is the first completely conscious use of my power up to date, controlled to minute details. Albeit it’s rather primitive, as not requiring anything, but the life essence itself, paired with thought instructions from me in a form of a precise and strong intent.

“Now you’re ready to go,” I said, releasing her from my embrace.

“Whoa!” Lily spread her wings and tried flapping her wings a few times, creating sharp gusts of wind in our room. Thankfully, nothing was toppled down. “I feel like I can crush all the bastards which may come my way, all by myself! If need be… Is it some kind of strength enchantment which some military unicorns can cast?”

“Nope. Hey, don’t overestimate yourself, it’s more to keep you from getting tired too quickly and help with injuries. It will hold for quite some time, at least it should.”

“Understood,” Lily replied with her ‘military voice’, nodding, finally getting into her working mood and assuring me she took my words seriously.

“And did you forget about the breakfast by any chance, judging by the looks you are giving that window?”

“Oh… I actually did!” Lily scratched her head with her hoof awkwardly, letting out a weak laugh. “I’ll go downstairs first, then.”

“I’ll accompany you. Could use a glass of water, or two. Or maybe even breakfast. Be right back, girls.”

“Alright,” Sapphira replied through a yawn, her sharp fangs, along with her other, also not so herbivore-looking teeth, on full display. “Ain’t she a cutie with all her predatory vibes?” I smirked, which didn’t escape her notice. I also made a mental note their teeth, regardless if it was a changeling, a batpony or any other pony, looked nothing like the teeth of actual equines, bringing them even closer to humans.

“Oh, wait for me.” Sugar finally stood up from the bed. “I need to prepare for work, too. Today I have a morning shift.” She was still feeling a little awkward after she let herself go loose and do as she wished last evening. Nobody minded it, though, so her worries were unfounded.

“I’ll just sleep for some more, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure, sure, Sapphi, rest as much as you need. We had a crazy week, and I’m still worried, remembering your prior state. I don’t want to see you like that ever again.”

“I promise you won’t,” she replied, laying down on the bed with a peaceful smile, closing her eyes.

“See you later!” Sugar briefly nuzzled Sapphira as a goodbye, making her half-open one eye and lift the corners of her mouth. Then she followed us out.

At the small table in the kitchen corner, Lily was almost ravaging her breakfast, doing so in focused silence. Breakfast consisted of milk porridge with some bits of fruit, and a pair of toast sandwiches with vegetables, which also had some cheese in them. Sugar and I had the same meal, eating unhurriedly. Despite its simplicity, the taste was good, and I was thankful that the chef, I need to ask for her name later, didn’t add any bitter stuff there. Like chamomile flowers or dandelions. It seems she somehow knows my food preferences already. This meal is hardly enough for my current appetite, but I can just have another meal when Sapphi wakes up.

“Hey Lily, slow down a little, or it won’t end well for your stomach,” I said, chuckling.

“Ith fine,” Lily said, while still chewing. “Doth wamma be lathe.”

I took a look at the wall clock. “I think you still have more than enough time.”

Gulping the food down, Lily answered, “Well, maybe you’re right.” Then she slowed down to eat properly.

“I’ll excuse myself for a moment. Seems Boss wants a word with me,” I said after I saw Boss waving me over from outside the kitchen.

“Alright—”

“Sure,” the girls answered.

Finishing the last spoon of porridge and leaving sandwiches on the plate, I stood up and walked out.

Ever since I got up, I was very taciturn, which is not like me at all. But what should I’ve been talking about after what I did yesterday? I was blatantly wooing and seducing Ray the entire evening, doing it openly right in front of his herd, no less. Damn cider! But it was so-o-o tasty… I hope Ray won’t think I’m some whorse. He won’t… right? No, of course he won’t!

“Hey sugar,” Lily suddenly called me, dragging me out of my mulling. “Not a morning pony, I suppose?”

“Ah? Oh… Sorry. That’s not…”

“Oh, come on, is it about yesterday again? We were pretty boozed-up, so don’t think too much about it.”

“But I… Well, you know, you saw what I was doing…”

“We’re friends, right?”

“We are. Definitely!” I might have said it a little louder than I wanted to.

“If I’ve learned anything from Sapphira, then how should I say it… You know… Say, you like me and Sapphira, don’t you?”

“Uh… Yes? I mean… Yes!” By the both Princesses, I’m mumbling like a foal…

“Sorry if I sound weird. You know, I’m not as good with words as with scouting or tracking, but, well, we like you, too. So what’s the big problem?” I noticed Lily was rather flustered, just like me, as she fumbled with her words, but she still tried, while I was a complete mess.

I fell silent for a while. “It’s… I… Well… It’s about Ray. He… He didn’t seem to answer my… advances. That usually means a stall—” I was interrupted by Lily.

“Welcome to the club, sister,” Lily laughed, sounding half-jokingly and half-resigned.

“Sister? I like how that sounds, but… What do you mean?”

“He blew me off my wings the same way, so to speak. The point is, he is not a pony stallion, and he was… yeah, rather dense at seeing such things. The things we winged ponies do to show our interest and intentions. I don’t know what I would do without Sapphira, who knows him much better. It was really hard. Hard to understand that he can actually see me as something more than just a friend. He — they, humans, are too complicated. He made me feel like a stupid little filly. It’s like he really liked me, wanted me, and didn’t at the same time. It was so confusing!” Lily snorted, then chuckled.

“Huh? That’s it exactly! Then how… How did you do it in the end?”

“One word - Sapphira. Well, she helped a lot. Also, now Ray sees such things much better already, so it’s unlikely he didn’t notice. Rather, I bet he understood everything more than clearly.”

“Then he… doesn’t like me?”

“No, it’s the opposite. Didn’t he spoil you throughout the entire evening? I’m even a little jealous! He is just… slower than a pony stallion, slower in many ways, and now I even grew to really like it.” Then Lily hushed her voice to a whisper. “I’m sure at least half of regular stallions would try to — ahem — straddle you right there with how much you rubbed your body off of him in all sorts of manners.” Lily’s face became a shade or two ruddier, and so was mine. “Yeah, he is a tough nut to crack, like Sapphira called him. It’s like a light flirting for him. He also kinda likes your scent. It was hard not to notice, for a thestral like myself, how he inhaled your scent here and there, obviously liking it. Well, he does it with us, too. I don’t have to tell you how important it is for us mares. Maybe it’s the same for him?”

“For real? No way… T-then, I-if you are, you know, okay with me, what should I do?”

“I don’t know, being more blunt worked wonders for me when I just leaped on him for a sudden kiss on the lips. But don’t forget the rules.” Lily clacked her hoof on the table and looked me up and down. “I’ll be away for the entire day.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

“Then we’re good.” Lily nodded, smiling. “Well, if everything fails, just tell Sapphira, she is like a heavy ship cannon with such things.” Lily giggled. “But it’s better if you do it without our help. It’s bad if we force our initiative on our stallion, it must be his own decision, and then we will support him and it’s done and done! One last thing, don’t forget who we are. For the past week, we were a real magnet for all kinds of trouble, and I doubt it will change too much anytime soon, so you’ve been warned. My job is not the safest in Equestria, so to speak.”

“It doesn’t matter, I’m not afraid — anymore.” By this time, my face must be red like a beet, but I must see it through. This time, for sure.

“I’ll do everything right for once.” I felt this new sense of determination, which a mare should have when fighting for her place in a herd. Fighting metaphorically, of course. “I’m no longer that clueless filly struggling for a lost cause, and the dangerous vibes this bunch has around them are rather magnetic… Heck, I’m weird, and I like it! You can do it, Sugar Spice. You totally can!”

“Well, time is up for me.” Lily said, after throwing another glance at the clock, and got up from her chair. “And don’t be so silent before him, or he’ll think he somehow disappointed or offended you.”

“Will he? O-okay, I’ll try. Oh… farewell hugs?”

“Yeah, hugs!”

Returning to the kitchen to finish my breakfast after talking out some details with Boss, I saw Lily and Sugar embracing happily. “They’re really getting along well, aren’t they?”

“Is it time already? Well, good luck, Lily. Take care,” I said, bending over to give her a hug of my own she was waiting to receive, also adding a light kiss on her cheek. That yearning look in her eyes was telling me how desired my actions were, and how much she wanted to just stay with us today.

“See you, Ray. Oh, and I’ll be stealing Sapphira from you tomorrow. Don’t ask, it’s a mare-only business.”

“Huh? Alright. Guess it’s good for you all to have some fun time in an all-girl company to unwind.”

Nodding, Lily quickly galloped off towards the exit, taking to the skies right after she passed the door frame.

“Energetic as always,” I remarked, turning towards Sugar, who was back at the table, sipping a freshly brewed tea. “Are you fine, Sweetie? You look somewhat — lost, ever since you woke up.”

Sugar almost choked on her tea, making a few coughs and patting her chest. “Phew… Well, I’m… I’m good, yeah. Totally.” Her eyes were darting all across the kitchen.

“Careful with that tea, Sweetie. You know, you can tell me while we’re alone here. If you want to, of course.”

The chef left the kitchen after she made our breakfast. The lack of guests in the dining hall allowed her to go out through the backdoor to check something in the main food warehouse. Looking at Sugar, I noticed her face reddening slightly once again.

Inhaling more air into her lungs, Sugar paused, hesitating. She was tapping her hooves together nervously. It was obvious she wanted to say something she wasn’t too comfortable speaking about. Then the look in her eyes became more confident and determined.

“Ray?”

“Yeah, Sweetie?”

“I…” I can bet at this moment she wanted to exhale and cease talking, but she forced herself to continue. “I really like you,” she said confidently, looking me in the eye.

“Well, that’s not a big secret, Sweetie, as well as me liking you.”

Sugar’s brows furrowed a little before she continued. “No, not like that. Not like — friends liking each other, but… but… like a mare liking a stallion.” Seems it was the limit of her courage, as her sight turned to her plate with sandwiches, and her figure slouched slightly.

“Well, fuck me. It seems it bothers her much more than I supposed, and some emergency measures are in order. I can’t just leave her in this state and carelessly go do my things,” I thought, sighing.

I walked up to her. “Silly filly…” My hand caressed her mane, then slid down to her barrel. I carefully took her into my arms, taking her up without a slightest hint of protest from her side. “I’m getting quite proficient in taking them up in my arms,” I joked inside my mind. An average pony frame seems deceptively light to the eye, but in reality, most ordinary men would struggle with the actual weight if they try to do so without causing discomfort for the pony in question. I guess it’s even trickier to pull off with a winged pony, as their wings are better left undisturbed. Though all of my girls have wings, so I can only suppose.

Sitting down on my own chair and sitting Sugar on my lap and against my chest, my fingers scratched gently behind her ears. I know it is very soothing for ponies, and Sugar was already feeling more relaxed, her eyes half-lidded. “That’s exactly what I meant, in case you misunderstood.”

“Really? But… I made all those lewd gestures, and you didn’t even bat an eye… So I thought you didn’t see me in this light.”

“Well, in my eyes, I’d say your gestures were cute rather than anything indecent. Well, maybe a little bit. Maybe. But it was fun. We humans might be much further down the lewd road that you might think…” I smirked, causing her cheeks to blush. “And I also didn’t want to get my herd jealous, and I know you were under a lot of stress lately. Such events tend to spark feelings, spontaneous feelings, which are often fleeting. I just… wanted to give you more time to sort this out, or something like that. Didn’t want you to do things you might later regret, with me being, well, me, and all that it entails.” I sighed. “And, honestly, I also wanted to give more time to myself, too. It’s still very confusing for me, who grew up in a ‘one stallion - one mare’ society. Sorry, didn’t want to dump it all onto you.”

Sugar looked up at me from behind her fringe, her glistening green eyes shining with a light of hope.

“What a horrible society… It’s so unfair for the mares who couldn’t get a stallion for themselves.”

“It wasn’t that bad, really. We had more stallions there.”

“Anyway, I… I thought this through, Ray. It’s not some… some superficial attraction. I’m sure about it.” She wrapped her hooves around my chest, burying her little muzzle into my shoulder, but she still looked at me sideways with one eye, half-hidden by her mane, with that puppy look. The one which threatened you to break into tears at any moment.

I sighed. “Sugar… That’s not fair. I’m powerless before this degree of cuteness,” I chuckled quietly, reciprocating her embrace.

“D-do you — really like me?”

“I do, Sweety. I do. And I’m not going anywhere. You don’t need to rush it so desperately.”

“Good. That’s a relief…” Sugar let out a sigh, and her usual smile returned to her face. “I did it,” she whispered at the very limit of my hearing.

The sound of soft hoof-falls coming from the main door to the kitchen distracted us. Sugar jerked, attempting to get off my lap, but I held her after noticing it was Flo who entered the kitchen. Seeing us, she beamed the most brilliant of smiles.

“Good morning, my little lovebirds,” Flo greeted us, her voice filled with warmth, making Sugar’s face redden instantly.

“Aunty! We’re not—”

“Morning, Flo,” I greeted her, noticing she was in an excellent mood today. “Come on, Sugar, do you think she doesn’t know?” I said in a more hushed voice.

“M-morning, auntie…” Sugar squeezed out of herself. “That’s… That’s embarrassing…”

“Nope, it is not,” I stated, resuming stroking her mane. “We were having breakfast here and — got a little distracted, as you can see.” I chuckled.

“Y-you know each other?” Sugar stuttered.

“But of course we do, dear. We talked quite a lot yesterday. Did you forget?” Flo answered before I could. “Ah, yes, yes, now I remember somepony just had too much cider yesterday.” Flo’s infectious laughter resounded through the kitchen. “And, please, don’t worry. How can I not support you courting such a fine stallion?”

“Wha—? Aunty!” Sugar inhaled to get more air for her indignant tirade, gulped the rest of the words she wanted to say, pretending to clear her throat.

“She is just messing with you, Sugar, but she means well.”

“I-I know… And… I’d not call it courting. Gosh, I screwed up! I should have called you and your herd on a date first, or something like that…” Sugar said guiltily, her eyes almost watering up. “Ah, I’m such a silly pony! I did everything wrong…”

“Ray, if I remember correctly, you are not into our courting traditions, right?” Flo interrupted Sugar’s self-bashing.

“Well, yeah, Sugar. I’m not even sure what is right and wrong about pony courting, so you don’t have to worry at all. Sweetie, if you want it, I’ll arrange such a ‘date’. I think girls won’t be against it. Though I doubt it would end differently from our dinner yesterday.” Damn, it seems it wasn’t only me struggling with my own cultural code here.

“Alright, it seems the issue is resolved, then,” Flo said, smiling. “You better finish your breakfast. The work starts soon. I’ll need you in half an hour, Sugar. Before that, you two can have some more free time for yourselves. I already had breakfast at home, so I’m leaving to check on some things.” Saying that, she turned around and started walking out of the kitchen, giving me a sly wink while Sugar wasn’t looking. Just before she left through the door, she added, “Oh, yeah, my dears. Now that Minty said it yesterday, I’m expecting both of you for a dinner somewhere this week. You can bring everypony, but tell me the day beforehoof.” Not waiting for our reply, she left. Obviously, she wasn’t considering ‘no’ for an answer.

Sugar blinked a few times in bewilderment.

“How come…” she trailed off.

“I’ll tell you later. You have a great auntie, Sugar.”

“Y-yeah, but we are not relatives.”

“I know. We had a pleasant talk yesterday, so I know a little about you and your auntie. Well, let’s follow her advice and finish our sandwiches and tea before it turns cold.”

Sugar nodded, finally getting off my lap, and we resumed our interrupted breakfast. While we were at it, the chef returned, making us unwilling to continue on the topic in her presence, staying silent until we were done here. Getting up from the chair, I straightened my shirt, and then unexpectedly felt a tug on my hand, finding Sugar’s hoof as the source of the tug, to my surprise.

“Would you mind coming to my room for a while?”

“Well, sure thing.” I guessed she wanted some privacy to continue our talk.

“Hey, Sweetie, how did you do that?” I looked at my hand.

“Did what?”

“Well, tugged on my hand.”

“Uh…” Sugar seemed surprised at the question. “Like usual, with my hoof.”

“I mean, my body seems to be utterly resistant to magic in most cases, so it’s a bit of a surprise for me. Now that I think about it, Sapphi and Lily seem to have never tried doing that.”

“Well, Sapphira can be called a unicorn, and they usually use their horn, as their hooves have less of a pulling force, and as for Lily… You know, it’s a little rude to do that, at least in high society, so maybe she thought she better avoid it,” Sugar spoke, performing another peculiar show right before my eyes. Namely, unlocking the door with a key using her flight feathers on the tip of her wing for it, which were moving and bending like fingers would. Despite her feathers being much more rigid, and still a far cry from actual fingers, it is still a commendable feat.

“Damn, you can do even that with your feathers?”

“Uh… yeah, it’s almost the same as we do things with our hooves,” Sugar said matter-of-factly. Opening the door, she ushered me inside and showed me to sit on her bed, then she busied herself taking out her uniform from the closet.

“Sugar, can you do it again? I mean, try to tug on my hand.” I asked, giving her a hand when she finally sat beside me.

“Sure…” Sugar took my hand, palm up, into her hoof, and now I actually felt some pull which held my hand pressed to her hoof. Then she felt my hand with her other hoof, prodding it and tracing my fingers one by one, pushing and tugging on them. “So soft…” she muttered. “But your hand can be so strong when needed...” Then she turned her hoof upside down, the same way my hand was turned up, her soft pinkish pad showing. She then wiggled it carefully, observing its movements. Then a surprised look appeared on her face.

“Sweet Celestia, can you believe I actually thought your joints were bending the wrong way? Silly me. We are almost the same, aren’t we?”

“Yes, Sweetie, for the most part. You are very perceptive if you can see it. If I remember correctly, this finger,” — I tapped my middle finger, — “Is what your hoof is, anatomically, and the hard part of the hoof would be my nail here. And you ponies are likely to have the other fingers in rudimentary form,” — I wiggled my other fingers for emphasis.

“But of course, we are all mammals. I’m sure this is not just another world, it’s exactly another, very distant and twisted dimension of my ‘old Earth’. There would be no chance at all for two different worlds to have the same vector of evolution and even identical plants and animals, not even mentioning civilizational and tech similarities.” I had such thoughts while Sugar was still busy fiddling with my fingers.

“Whoa! Your hands no longer look so strange to me, now that I know…” Sugar giggled. “And — uh — about our talk before… Sorry for, you know, rushing things, but I felt so… insecure.”

“It’s alright, Sugar, really.”

“I’m good now. It’s like a rock just fell off my withers.” Sugar beamed with a genuine smile.

“I didn’t know how much your gestures meant to you, so sorry about that.”

“No, no, it’s my fault. Some of those were pegasi things, which even other pony tribes don’t get the meaning of sometimes…”

“I really liked your puffy-fluffy chest, though,” I said with a chuckle. “Noticed Lily likes to do so, too.”

“Tee-hee-e,” Sugar let out a drawled giggle. “Nobody can do it better than pegasi, and maybe batponies, too.” She straightened her posture, and immediately the fur on her chest puffed out. “Just like that.”

“Can I?” I reached with my hand.

“Go ahead. This is not just for show, it’s for cuddles, too!”

The feeling her fur gave me was spectacular, that extra-soft, warm, flowing feeling on my fingers while they were slowly submerging into her fluff.

“Wow, so soft…”

“You know, we don’t allow just anypony to touch our chest tufts…” Sugar flashed me a meaningful smile. “See?” She showed off her chest. “No better cuddles than pegasi cuddles! Especially in winter.”

“Hm-m-m…” I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. “Consider me sold out. When is the wedding?” I raised my brow, trying not to laugh.

“Huh? Wha—” Sugar’s mouth opened and closed back a few times, for I happened to short-circuit her brain for a while, until I could no longer hold it and exploded in a laughing fit.

“Ah! Ray!” Sugar exclaimed indignantly. “You… bully!” Sugar pretended to hit me with her hooves while laughing. “I think we missed some steps for it.”

“Then, how does it usually happen, Sweetie?”

“Well, uh… at first, a mare usually asks the stallion she fancies for a date…”

“Mare asking a stallion out?”

“Um-m, yeah? Is it something strange? Well, sometimes a stallion asks out a mare, but it’s more often for a mare to seek out a stallion or a herd than vice versa. Also, older traditions are still very commonplace all around, where a mare meets other mares of the herd first, even without meeting with a stallion prior, and it’s so swamped with silly customs and rules when it comes to the official part I don’t even want to talk about it.”

“Yeah, the male-to-female ratio sure did a number on the society norms here,” I thought, continuing to listen.

“So, overall, we mares gotta be…” Sugar paused, picking out her words and pressing her fluffy ears to the sides of her head, — “more persistent, and assertive, sort of.”

“Well, I’d not say you’re lacking in persistence and courage. At least you weren’t today.”

“It’s just… I’m not very good at that. And I’ve already made an unfortunate mistake before. Well, you know, with a herd. Uh… ex-herd. B-but it wasn’t even official, so it’s no big deal, I hope... I have only myself to blame for being so blind and naïve.” Sugar made a bitter smile, letting a mirthless self-mocking laugh. That must be about what Flo told me yesterday, but I’ll feign ignorance, as I promised her. “It’s so much different with you all.” Her momentary melancholy vanished as if it was just a mirage, while her emerald eyes were looking at me brightly.

“Uh-huh… I see. We can talk about it, Sweetie, if you want it.”

“Well… Maybe later, but not today for sure. It’ll just sour my good mood.”

“Alright, back on topic. What happens after a mare has a date with a stallion?”

“After that? Let me think… It can be several dates, actually, but at some point, if the stallion is in the herd, the mare… She should ask about joining the herd… Well, they set another date with an entire herd, to get to know each other better, and it can go over a few more times, or it can pass really fast and the mare will be accepted or, huh, rejected… But as for us, I don’t know… We all already know each other, more or less, so I have no idea what we should do, really!” She held her temples with her hooves, then blinked a few times rapidly, looking at me. “Any ideas? I’m at a loss…”

I once again couldn’t hold in my laughter. She could become a decent comedian with how expressive the emotions on her face can get.

“Phew,” — I exhaled loudly after my short laughing fit. “You are something, Sugar. We’ll figure it out somehow, I’m sure. We can just spend more time together, or go somewhere to have fun when all four of us have free time, make it something like those dates you mentioned, but without it being all stuffy and official, you know. Yesterday we had fun, hadn’t we?”

“Yep, we totally had fun! Now that you say it, it sounds so easy… Why was it so hard for me? It’s just silly! Maybe I really was too stressed...”

“You know, I wasn’t a sea of calmness either, thinking about us, you know...”

“Are you for real, Ray? Y-you were thinking about me?”

“Well, yes, Sweetie, quite a lot actually. Now that we have talked about it, it really feels much easier. That was indeed truly silly, to worry about it all so much… Now come on, let’s stop with awkward talks. I need that cheery, carefree, and fluffy filly from yesterday back, right here, right now!”

I spread my hands for a hug. Sugar stood up on the bed and backed off to the other end with a sly visage. Then she suddenly lowered her chest while her hind legs were quickly positioned, preparing for a leap, a little reminiscent of a cat attack posture, with wings raised high, but that was the last thought which came to my head before the naughty pegasus pounced at me, and I had to catch her into my arms, so we toppled to the side, landing onto the pillow of her not-so-large bed.

“You must really love doing that, Sweetie,” I said through laughter.

“Yep, that’s awesome. A pony stallion couldn’t catch me right into a cuddle like that. To Tartarus with those herd customs,” — she waved off with her hoof, as if shooing these thoughts away, — “I’m happy with how things are now between us. We can really figure it out by ourselves.”

“You don’t say, Sweetie. That’s the plan.”

“Now I feel like myself once again. Thanks, Ray.”

“You’re always wel—”

My mouth was suddenly occupied by Sugar’s lips in a short kiss, which lasted just for a few seconds at best; it was fleeting, but incredibly gentle. As she kissed me, she tilted her head slightly for better access, with her eyes closed and cheeks reddened. I slightly lamented I didn’t have time to react properly and kiss her back, but that will do for now.

“That’s… for a start. Did you like it?” Sugar said quietly, with a sheepish smile, quickly averting her gaze as her cheeks continued to turn a tomato color. It still fascinates me that ponies can actually blush, and to such a degree, right through their velvety coats on their short, elegant muzzles. It’s the same as their cutie marks, which always stay in place and are clearly visible no matter how messed up the fur on their flanks becomes.

“Ho-o-o, someone got courageous,” I teased her, chuckling, and sitting upright again. “Of course I liked it. You know, back home, if I said I didn’t like being kissed by a beautiful and super-cute girl, I’d become a laughingstock. But why do I have that feeling of déjà vu all of a sudden?”

“I… Who knows…” Sugar said, drawing circles with her hoof on my chest.

“Oh, you’re so busted, Sweetie.” I let out a short laugh. “You two little schemers… Yeah, I suspected you were up to something, and I guess the question with Lily is closed for you, right? Or was it Sapphira?”

Sugar nodded back at me with a guilty look. “It was Lily…”

“So quick to give her out…” I chuckled. “Well, the same goes for Sapphi if you ask me. I think she likes you quite a lot. Alright, alright, you did nothing wrong, Sweetie, it’s all good. I just find it funny.” I stroked her cheek with one hand.

“Oh, and did you just call me, well huh, super-cute and… beautiful?” Sugar once again shifted her gaze away from my eyes.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I said, and I can say it again: beautiful and cute.”

“T-thanks, Ray. But… I-I don’t think I’m something special… in the beauty department. I’m short, kinda, and my flanks are not too great with me being a pegasus and all, and I can’t flaunt strong muscles like good fliers do either, a-and my colors are rather pale, with just a single bright lock in my mane… and—”

“What a bunch of nonsense! In my eyes, you are beautiful. What you mentioned doesn’t make you any less beautiful for me, it just makes you who you are. I see nothing wrong with your physique or colors, if you ask me.”

Without saying anything, Sugar just leaned closer to me, hugging my chest and trying to hide her still ruddy face in it. Then her quiet voice reached my ears, “See? That’s why… That’s why I was so afraid that if I don’t tell you now, I might find you gone one day and… and…” she trailed off and fell silent, only pressing her head to my chest even more. “Where else would I find somepony like you?” she whispered, rubbing her forehead on my chest.

I embraced her, caressing the back of her head gently with my free hand. My fingers were slipping into her mane and going back in soft moves. “And that’s why I won’t suddenly disappear anywhere.”

We sat like that for a while, Sugar blissfully enjoying our time together with a subtle smile. “Well, alright, if they all want a herd together, then a herd is what they’ll get. Who in their right mind can reject a girl like this, huh? Not me, obviously.” But then I remembered the time limit Flo gave to Sugar.

“I almost feel bad about telling you, but do you have to prepare anything for work? You don’t have exactly much time left, I suppose.”

Sugar started up, detaching herself from me. “Gosh, I almost forgot! Oh, huh, I don’t have much to prepare, actually. Just need to put on my maid outfit. Can you help me with that? Sometimes it can become too tedious of a task to put my wings through those narrow cutouts on the back.”

“Easily — it’s a piece of cake compared to the armor the girls sometimes have to wear.”

After I was done helping Sugar with her uniform, and I was sure touching pegasi wings like that was allowed only to their closest ones, I wished Sugar a pleasant day and returned to my room, while not forgetting to ask her for some paper and a writing tool. Luckily, she had both a pencil and a still unused notebook in her room.

Damn, I’m so glad ponies had come up with the idea of pencils, as well as had capabilities to mass-produce them. Otherwise, the only alternative would be a pen and inkwell, as I found out, which would’ve likely resulted in a dirty mess on the paper, and with my hands stained with ink all over. It felt awkward when I asked for a pen, and Sugar had no idea what it was. Actually, there is no word for ‘pen’ in Equestrian, so I had to be ‘inventive’ with my explanations. She found the idea of gel and fountain pens interesting, but said she never saw anything like that. Sugar only suggested some unicorns proficient in enchantment might have made magical trinkets like that for their personal use, but nothing like a common item meant for everyday life.

As for why I suddenly needed a notebook and writing tools, I just decided to organize my memories and thoughts I deemed more important at the moment, and what better way to do that than to make some notes for future reference? Sapphira is still sleeping, anyway, so I opted for a more quiet activity.

I was sitting at the table in our room, pondering over what I should start with and fiddling with a pencil in my hand, my oh so old habit which suddenly resurfaced. I turned over the colorful, albeit simple cover of the notebook, opening the first blank page, its yellowish color, along with a papery smell, was giving off pleasant old-times vibes. “Where do I even start? Well, let’s start with the basic logic I was taught — to try to understand everything, you have to start with yourself first, and while it may sound vague, it’s more than accurate in my case.”

Focusing my mind, shuffling through the vast reserves of knowledge, which would easily take tens of years to learn if I had to do it in a common way, I eventually found what to start with to connect my ‘past self’ with what I have become now firmly. That is, I needed to fully understand what my body, and perhaps my soul, too, had to undergo a little more than a week ago. That spell back then, other than alerting the local diarchy, had reformed my body and caused me such an amount of pain that my consciousness couldn’t tolerate it at all. It was implied that my body, if left as it was, would burn out, unable to contain my transformed soul.

“Yeah, that’s it, but what language should I choose? I guess I better write in one of Earth languages, choosing the hardest of the three I know. Should my notes ever get into the wrong hands, they would be extremely hard to decrypt without any references whatsoever.”

With such a thought in mind, I started to draw an outline of a human body schematically. It felt weird, but my drawing was extremely accurate, though with no artistic sense in it — just plain,almost machine-precision lines remained on the paper following the pencil lead, which steadily slid across its surface. After finishing drawing a human shape, I put down the pencil, looking at my hand in bewilderment, slowly playing with my fingers. “What a nice bonus. Not too useful, but nevertheless a nice one.” I smirked, taking the pencil again.

Though when I remember what I’m supposed to be able to do with these fingers of mine, and a degree of precision and control which I have to have over them in order to avoid terrible failures while controlling my energy flow… Failures which may cost lives. Well, that makes a lot of sense, but to achieve perfect control, a lot of practice will be in order.

The very first thing I drew next was a simple circle in the center of the chest. Inside it I added a small picture of an octahedron, then added a footnote and wrote: ‘Soul Nexus’. Of course, in reality, it didn’t look like that, and it wasn’t even a part of my body per se, but this place is where my soul connects to both my physical and energy bodies. When Falda’ar was explaining this, most of the stuff pertaining to soul was too out of my understanding, so he had to somewhat dumb it down for me.

Generalizing, I can say it is the very place where my soul resides, something intangible that makes me, well, me. I have nothing to compare it to, but it must be very different from what the regular ‘mortals’ have. Yeah, Falda’ar has a habit of calling all the common folks, who are living around the multiverse on whatever space dirtball they happen to populate, ‘mortals’. I must add that it’s not only the place which contains my soul. It is a fortress for it, an armored shell, and also my ‘escape pod’ in a scenario where I somehow manage to lose my life. It will allow Falda’ar to ‘take me back’ after my failure, whatever that might mean, but I’m not planning on checking how it works, for a very obvious reason.

Then I drew another circle, somewhere around where my solar plexus must be. I placed a simple little depiction of the atom inside it. Well, it just felt fitting for its purpose: ‘Energy Core’. It wasn’t the actual name, but the real one would be too much of a mouthful, if it wasn’t just another one of Falda’ar’s jokes, of course. It is a so-called energy organ with a purpose of receiving, giving out and otherwise rerouting and converting power. Not only is it the main hub for distributing my ‘Life Essence’ all over my body, but it is also the focal point for the process of converting the background magic flow into ‘Life Essence’ itself, and it is the only method of replenishing my energy available to me at the moment.

So, the Energy Core is essentially the center of my ‘power grid’. It is also one of my weak points, and an attack with a little more than just regular magic to it, with something the like of my own ‘Life Essence’, might bring me great harm if it hits this spot. On the other hand, physical force and regular magic alike can’t interact with it at all, aside from damaging my physical body, which I can fix afterwards… if I’m still not dead, that is.

The changes I underwent not only added those weird energy organs into my body, they changed the very structure of my cells, and even the DNA of every single one of those inside my body. That spell had also formed a complete energy body, mirroring my physical one. Organelles, never seen inside human cells before, were a norm for me now. Their purpose is to conduit, store, and use my power to my cells’ benefits, connecting my physical and energy bodies into a single, wholesome entity, and allowing my entire body to perform vastly outside of what might be expected from a regular human.

The main energy channels were laid along my nerves, as my neurons had acquired new functionality, focused on energy transfer. It actually was a good explanation why I found my hands, and specifically fingers, to be the most convenient tools to channel my power through and control it. No surprise there, not with their tactile sensory capabilities. The second best would be my eyes, also very rich in neuron cells, but they served another purpose already. The brain had exclusively retained its old functions, and all the changes to it were focused on bolstering my mental capacities, though for now those improvements must be minor at best. My ability allowing me minute control over the tiniest movements of my fingers and drawing blueprint-grade images, is a good example of the fine control over my muscles my brain provided. I turned the page to jot down some important points about my body I found useful to remember.

Putting down line after line of handwritten text, I found that this effect didn’t apply to my regular sloppy scribbles, but still they are somewhat more neat than they used to be, even though I’m paying very little attention to the quality of my handwriting right now. Well, this may become an upside in case somebody tries to decrypt my notes — the sloppier they are, the harder it will be to do, but whatever. As time passed, more and more pages were being filled, until I returned to page one to add more stuff to the schematic.

I drew a large circle inside the stomach area and added a picture of a battery inside. ‘Energy Storage’ — yeah, this name might be rather unimaginative, but that’s essentially what it is. Nobody is here to blame me for my bad naming sense, anyway. Every ounce of energy the Energy Core takes from the outside world must be stored somewhere, and when the need arises, it must be returned to the system from somewhere, too. And while every part of my body is capable of that, the cells of my internal organs and intestines, with both their physical and energy structure, are specialized for this simple task: to help to retrieve Life Essence from its stores and send it to the Energy Core. Then they receive that energy back for storage when it’s no longer needed. Simple as that.

One must not mistake the energy organ for a physical organ with modified cells, for those cells are only gateways which connect my physical body to my energy body and organs. It’s made of pure Life Essence in a way I still have no knowledge of, and chances are I won’t understand it clearly for long years to come. Every explanation Falda’ar tried to offer me was just too out of this world… Well, out of the world I used to call home, at least. I guess I just don’t have the required basis to understand any of it, so I just had to accept it as is.

The next circle was drawn inside the head, with an icon of the brain inside it, then a smaller circle was added right below it with an icon of an eye. ‘Mind Focus’ and ‘Mind’s eye’. The former is essentially an extension of my brain, and I know very little about its workings or functions, but they must be of a similar nature. ‘Mind’s eye’, on the other hand, is an organ I actually used to see, in my eye’s stead, when I used my ‘Life Vision’. It may be the very basic technique, though also the only one I currently have the memory of, but it isn’t simple, and I still have a long way to go before I can use its full potential.

Yeah, a technique. It’s called like that for a reason, for it does not require me to construct a spell. Spells based on Life Essence are still out of my grasp, and I have no recollection of learning them, even a single one. Falda’ar said I’m still too inexperienced for that, and learning spells would be more of a threat to myself and others than something useful for now. So I was stuck with techniques. They require only precise control and a strong, similarly precise intent, or ‘will’, as some may call it.

As a finishing touch, I drew all the main energy channels, generally going along the main nerves, connecting all the drawn stuff together, with a few exceptions. Exceptions like a main ‘power line’, as I call it, connecting Energy Storage, Energy Core and Mind Focus directly in a thick straight line. I bet all local creatures must have something like this energy network in their bodies, otherwise all this magic won’t make much sense. After looking over my work once more, I finally began gradually catching up with my understanding of my own body and how I actually get and use Life Essence. A lot of things, which didn’t make much sense to me before just yesterday, now do. The knowledge lay down on the pages of this cheap notebook worked as an anchor for the rest of my memories, now filling the gaps in my understanding at an increased rate.

A content smile crept up my face from the feeling of a work well done, and I slowly submerged my mind into a focused, meditation-like state to work further on it all, shutting out the outside world almost completely.

“Ray-Ray-Ray-Ray-Ray-Ray—” I heard as I struggled to not fall off my chair from the intense shaking which suddenly kicked me out of my concentrated state.

“Wah!” My hand shot forward to grab the edge of the table, saving me from the fall. “Fuck! Sapphi? What’s happening?” I looked at panicking Sapphira, who just stopped shaking me like it’s no tomorrow. Her tense face relaxed, and she just slumped her upper body onto my lap, loudly exhaling in relief, her forehooves hanging down limply.

“I thought something bad happened to you. Sorry. When I woke up, I couldn’t feel even a tiny bit of your emotions, despite seeing you right in front of me. And you just sat there still, completely unmoving, not responding to me no matter how much I called, or how much I shook you. So I thought that…” She inhaled deeply with an intent to say more, but then her chest deflated as she exhaled, closing her eyes for a moment. “Just forget it… I overreacted.”

I rubbed my face, processing what she said. Well, if my concentration can completely remove my emotional aura, then it’s understandable, considering her sense of emotions is likely the primary way of perception when interacting with others. Damn, I must’ve really scared her. And I’ve also found out a clue about how to hide this aura from others.

“Sorry to make you worry so much. I was just — extremely concentrated. I know it wasn’t the best way to wake up for you…” My hand quickly found its newfound favorite place on top of her head, stroking her silky mane. “Want me to make up for it?”

“Mmm-uh-huh,” she mumbled, nodding.

I bent down to get a better hold of Sapphi, then carried her back to the bed, landing beside her after that.

“So?” I put my hand on her shoulder, sliding it down her figure slowly. “Ear scratches, belly rubs, kisses, massage, breakfast in bed, or,” — My hand slid further down her side and caressed her thigh, — “maybe something else entirely? I’m all yours…” I half-whispered.

“Awww, how sweet… All of it, if I’m being completely honest.” Sapphira showed me a toothy grin. “But I’m still concerned about our ceiling here, so some kisses would suffice for now, and I’m still too full of magic to eat so much… Also, we planned to do quite a lot today, so we better not tarry. Or else we’ll just skip our morning like that, or at least what’s still left of it.” She looked at the window. The heat of the day was long present outside, and the only thing saving us from it must be that light conditioning the hotel most probably had. “I’ve slept in — quite a bit, I guess.”

“Yeah, but you all more than deserve a good rest.” I said, stealing her lips. “By the way, what have you and Lily planned together for tomorrow?” I asked after our lips had parted.

“That’s a secret,” she said, a sly sheen in her eyes.

“Well… Do whatever you want, I won’t pry so as not to spoil your fun,” I whispered into her satiny ear, tickling her with my hot breath, then traced the outline of her ear with my lips. Devoid of any fur, her ears looked more narrow than pony ears, despite actually having the same shape. Their texture was so soft and satisfying to the touch.

“Ah…” Sapphi gasped. I noticed the skin on her face started taking on a darker, slightly redder tint, most likely because it was turning her on rather than because of embarrassment. “No, no, no, I won’t say a word to you, no matter how much I love you.” She made another gasp as I switched to her right ear. “M-mh, don’t tease me. We need to get up and get ready to go out into town.”

I chuckled. “At least you’ll know how it feels to be in my shoes every single time you do it.”

Sapphira giggled. “Do you think it’ll stop me from doing that? And I also don’t wear shoes.”

“Should we buy you a pair, then? Oh, yea, it should be a quad, not a pair… Daym, it must be expensive for ponies to buy, uh, hoofwear.”

“That would be unnecessary. The extra chitin on my hooves makes them even more sturdy than those of earth ponies.”

“You don’t understand, Sapphi. It’s more about convenience and style rather than protection.”

“Well, we’ll see about that, some time later.” Sapphira’s gaze suddenly became unreadable, and, if anything, I could call it concerned. “I still need to ask you something. Something important…”

“Yes, Sapphi?”

“Do you… Do you love the Princess?”

I coughed from the suddenness of this question. “How—”

“Did you think I could miss that explosion of love? It woke me up with a start at night. It was impossible to miss, and it was unmistakable: it was her… again. With that peculiar taste to your emotions you always have after you meet her every time. So I guessed she had entered your dream tonight.”

“Sorry, Sapphi…” I looked down.

“Why? No, Ray. If anything, I must be happy to have a relationship with such a powerful mare… It’s just… I don’t know how to say it right… I’m so, so much less than her. I’m almost nothing in comparison, in everything. How can I even hope to compete with her? I fear she might just take you away to her white castle, putting you behind those walls, away from me… But you are still here, still caring for me, I can feel it so vividly, and still I… I don’t know what to think of it.” Sapphira leaned closer to me, falling silent. Only her cheek kept rubbing on my chest slowly.

“I’m sorry for not telling you.” I cupped the side of her head with my hand, rubbing her cheek with my thumb gently.

“Not that I didn’t know it, really.”

“I said it before, and I’ll say it again: if I’m going anywhere, I’m going with you. Or I’m not going at all. My world will lose colors without you in it.” I didn’t lie even in the slightest here. Whatever the real reason might’ve been, be it magic involved or some strange pheromones, I don’t really care. I got very attached to Sapphira, and the reverse is also true. Though I suspect Life Essence, for that simple circuit I found inside her after her transformation, is not dissipating. It’s even sustaining itself on its own, and it feels like she has a part of me inside of her, almost literally. I can feel this link. It’s just a mere thought away.

“And without you, I won’t have my place in this world…” Sapphira almost whispered, and I felt wetness on my thumb, as a tear rolled down from her eye. It made my heart bleed. Damn, I was always bad at dealing with crying women. They always made me too soft, and this… This is even worse. So that’s what has been bothering her all this time, since the early morning.

“Please, Sapphi… Don’t cry,” I tried to placate her. “If you want, I… I’ll speak with her, and…”

“No!” Even more tears started to roll out of her eyes. “In no way I want you to turn away from her! I’m terrible… I’m so selfish… I know she must love you too, I just know it… But I’m like a bad, greedy changeling who wants to keep your love all to herself.” Even more tears stained her cheeks.

“Think, Ray, think. You must break her self-flagellating pattern to get her out of it.” I was racking my brain over it.

“No, Sapphi. You share your love with Lily, and even with Sugar. And it was you who suggested it in the first place!” I shifted her position a little, so her magnificent, albeit teary, eyes stared into mine like a pair of large azurites. “You are not selfish. You are the best girl I have ever known in both worlds. The best, Sapphi, and I love you for who you are. That little bit of jealousy, I can understand very well. We humans are very prone to it ourselves.”

Slowly, a smile crept up her face. I wiped the tears from her cheeks while her hooves moved around my neck unhurriedly. Then she took me in an unusually firm embrace, as if she feared I might disappear the moment she released me.

She let out a soft sigh before whispering in my ear. “Jealousy is still a bad thing. Bad for the herd. Bad for the hive. Bad for everybody. Next time she comes, tell her I want a word with her. I know she is a good pony. She helped us, maybe even saved our lives, and she is still helping us even at this very moment.” She paused, sniffling lightly. “And sorry for the scene — it’s really not like me… I don’t know what came over me. I think I just let everything that happened to us pile over on me and then kept everything locked inside, until now… You are the best, too.” Sapphira released me, but only to catch me in another kiss.

Step by step, I was going down the stairs unhurriedly. Letting out a light sigh, I thought if I had bitten more than I could chew. In a span of just one morning, I had to work really hard just to calm down two mares, and it took a certain toll on my mental fortitude. Lily, on the other hand, didn’t give me any trouble at all. At least I won’t have to worry about her being too distracted while she is out there. Well, I can’t really blame them for anything. Some of those difficulties were created by myself in the end, and others just by our situation itself.

Still, I’m surprised that I somehow got all this relationship chaos under control, more or less. Perhaps it was not as chaotic from the start as I thought it was. The girls lived in this society for their entire lives, and obviously they know what they are doing much better than I do. Now I know they all want a herd, and there is no longer anything to really worry about other than more mundane things. There is only Luna left, and everything about her is as unpredictable as it can get, considering the state she was in when she ran away. But I better not forget she has hundreds of years of experience, so I better not stress myself out and just wait for the night to come — I have faith in her.

Though, if I look at the bigger picture, my situation is not bad at all, and my worries are rather insignificant. It is actually good for me, because I finally feel alive. So very alive, after all that time spent in relative isolation. The time which feels like it was years, and years, and maybe even more years. And now I’m finally unleashed upon this world, so hungry for everything a human being can crave. This feeling was suppressed by the need to survive in the jungle, but now it’s coming at me in full force. And I’m gonna take it all, all that I’ve missed throughout these years, slowly, but surely. A grin formed on my face as I acknowledged my true desires one more time. Perhaps Falda’ar planned for it? He knew how I would feel, so he gave me almost full freedom and lots of time.

Downstairs, the dining hall was much more lively, now that it was getting closer to eleven. A considerable part of tables were occupied. I wanted to get a regular breakfast for Sapphi, and order us some extra. “That omelet with fried tomatoes and cheese looks yummy,” I thought as I passed by a bright yellow pegasi mare, digging into one with gusto. Pegasi seems to be more into high-protein foods as far as I can see. Must be something to do with flying. I still haven’t seen one eating meat, at most fish or eggs.

“Will Sapphi like it if I take one for her? Well, I guess I’ll have to figure it out,” I thought with an intention of ordering it.

“Hey Flo!” I called my good ‘big sister’ when I saw her walking by the table I took a liking to. It was once again closer to the farther part of the dining hall.

“Oh, she is finally up? The poor filly must be exhausted by your misadventures.”

“She’ll be fine — Sapphi is strong. She just needed a bit of good rest.”

“Naturally. So, want me to bring her breakfast?”

“In fifteen minutes, if it’s not too much of a chore — she asked for some time to ‘get herself in shape’, and I also want to order two omelets, the same as that mare has.” I pointed with my thumb behind my back, Flo’s gaze following the direction.

“Oh, that’s no problem at all, my dear.”

“Yeah, and one coffee for me, regular one.” I’m not sure Sapphi likes it, but she was fine with tea yesterday, and it comes along with porridge and sandwiches. Damn, I’m lucky there is coffee on Equis. There were times I was almost living on coffee. Of course, now I have a different kind of ‘doping’, but the habit, as well as a taste for it, still stands strong. “Guess Sugar is not working in the dining hall today, right?”

“Yeah, she is cleaning rooms today, with a special task,” Flo winked.

“Oh, I see. Well, I better not hold you then. You have many people to attend to, it seems.”

“Yeah, I better be going. Everything will be ready in fifteen minutes, or maybe a little later, considering the amount of clients.”

“It’s fine, I don’t mind.”

Nodding, Flo left to continue with her work.

‘People’, I rolled the word I just used on my tongue. The word we referred to humans exclusively back home, but here, the local analogue is meant to be used to refer to any sapient folks. Thinking of language, it’s rather complex here. Take, for example, their names. They have a distinguished sound to them, but also carry a meaning. It’s not just a combination of words and sounds. Some human cultures had something like that, if I remember correctly.

While I was busy thinking, I barely noticed some ruckus happening nearby, until something hit me in the chest, not too hard, but the overall impact was great, almost pushing the air out of my lungs as something heavy slammed into me, pushing me against the couch backrest.

“Ra-a-a-a-y!” That something screamed, taking a hold of my chest with its hooves. What followed was a weird mix of laughter and sobs, obviously male in nature. Tearing the head of my assailant from my chest I found it was no other than…

“Sandy?” My brow raised. Tears were falling from his eyes, but his face had a dopey smile on it.

“X’cuse me, pardner, was too slow to hold this chap down. G’ mornin’, I s’pose.” I heard a familiar voice from my back as a hoof patted my shoulder.

“Yeah, morning. The kid had too much booze tonight, so he is yet to dry out completely. Don’t go too hard on him, he has a good reason for it,” a no less familiar bassy voice joined the first one.

“Guys?” I turned my head toward them, both stallions smiling at me. “Really glad to see you again, but how did you find me? And… What’s wrong with Sandy?” I looked back at a stallion plastered on my chest who started rubbing his cheek on it. “I hope it’s just another pony thing and not some gay stuff. But I’m almost sure it’s the former.”

They walked closer so we could shake our — appendages.

“That was not too hard of a thing to do. The rumors fly fast, especially if it’s a rumor that some biped knocked out a Mountain and kicked him out of Equestria,” Stout laughed.

“E-yep, all ‘dem mercs in the saloon were goin’ crazy ‘bout that.”

“My horn, Ray. My ho-o-orn!” Sandy almost screamed, still refusing to get off me. “It works! Almost like it should! That’s, that’s… Awesome!” Tears of happiness were still flowing from his eyes as the expression of utter happiness was on his face.

Out of habit, I just started ruffling his mane and scratching between his ears. Well, that didn’t feel awkward to me anymore.

“Oh, wow. That feels nice.” Sandy’s voice turned quieter and his head tilted back to get more contact with my hand. “Oh, hay, that’s really calming… Sorry to jump you like that, I was — too happy to see you.”

“Hah, still such a foal, F— Sandy,” said Fix, grinning.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s right. You can’t call me Fizzlecrack anymore,” Sandy replied with a smug face. “All thanks to my best bro here!” He patted my shoulder.

“Alright, now stallion up and get off your best bro’s barrel and stop wetting his coat, or somepony around might start to get some wrong ideas,” Steel said with a chuckle.

“What wrong ideas? You hang out with minotaurs too much, Steel. It’s just bro-hugs, you hear me? Bro-hugs!” Sandy grumbled.

“I was talking about ‘wetting his coat all over’ part. That reminds me of one time in Fillydelphia when I had a ‘pleasure’ of having a few drinks with local stallions, who broke down to crying sops after just a few shots, clinging to my chest and complaining about insignificant nonsense, like one of their mares forgetting about their wedding anniversary. Buck, of course, she did, working day in and day out for the sake of their herd. What’s the big deal? And so on… That wasn’t nice to experience, Sandy, so I quietly sneaked away, leaving them to each other. Buck, I bet I’d have better time drinking with their mares instead,” Steel ended his tirade, letting out a brief bassy laugh.

Sandy snorted with irritation. “I’m not like them,” he scoffed, but stopped wiping his wet eyes on my shirt nonetheless, then got off my chest, sitting himself right beside me. “Don’t compare my horn to… that! Ah, don’t mind him, bro. Can I… get a little more of those scratches?” He asked with a sheepish smile, making Steel chuckle and shake his head.

“So, do you mind if we join?” asked Steel.

“You don’t need to ask. Come sit, guys. After all, you came here looking for me. It’s really nice to see some familiar faces, to be honest.” My hand was already busy with Sandy’s ears. His head shifted every once in a while so I could scratch his most desired spots. Damn, they all are like big cats. Even better than cats.

“Well, to tell ya the truth, it was all Sandy. He was fixing to find ya like his life depended on it,” Fix replied.

“Come on, guys, I owe my bro more than I can ever repay! I’m almost a full-fledged unicorn now! You won’t ever understand what that means to me! I mean it, Ray. Thank you. If you ever need something, anything I can help with, you just tell me.”

“You said ‘almost’?”

“Well, yeah, there is still some minor trouble moving magic along the mended leylines in my horn, but that’s nothing if I compare it to how it was before. Don’t mind it, everything is great!”

“Leylines? Is it how you ponies call your energy channels?”

“Energy… channels?” Sandy repeated my phrase, pondering. “Well, that name has some merit. Well, yeah, these spiral lines on our horns. The magic flows through them, allowing us to concentrate and command it. Your healing magic managed to fix them, for the most part. That’s something deemed impossible for healing spells, you know. At least the books say so. The cases of natural recovery are not unheard of, of course, but are extremely rare. So, yeah, I still have some resistance in the damaged areas, but casting spells no longer causes the magic to spill from the broken leylines going all haywire and sparky, so I’m really happy. No more headache and hornache for me, and no more crazy magic expenditure either, so now I won’t be tired like a dog after each shift…” He looked around nervously. “Phew, I’m glad there are no diamond dogs around. They kinda don’t like when I say this. A lot,” Sandy said in a hushed voice, letting out a stifled, nervous laugh.

I chuckled, ruffling his already disheveled mane once again and pressing him to my side in a bear hug. “I’m really happy to hear it. You know, now I’m sure I can finish what I started and make your horn work as intended, so,” — I slapped his withers, — “just come see me in a few days. There is still some minor residue of my magic left in your horn from the last time, so we’d better wait a little.” I lightly tapped the tip of his horn with my index finger a few times.

“Wha-wha-what? You can do that? Daym, bro! Let’s get wasted tonight! My treat!”

“Hey-hey, hold your horses, pal,” — I broke off, — “whoops, wrong saying.”

All the guys stared at me and then snapped into a hearty laughing fit at my words.

“I can’t—” Fix couldn’t complete his phrase through his laughter.

“Damn, you rock, colt! H-Hold,” — he gasped for air, — “your w— whorses, shit!” He continued to laugh. “That’s golden!” Steel wheezed through the laughter.

“Bro,” — Sandy said, suppressing his giggles, — “whatever that should mean, you totally blasted it in the most funny way!”

Chuckling, remembering what meaning a ‘whorse’ held here, and a fact that the local word ‘horse’ was almost out of use, I tried to explain, — “Horses, those big animals you can ride.”

“Oh, that? Haven’t they gone extinct in Equestria? Never heard about ponies using them like that. If you didn’t put another meaning for ‘riding’, that is.” Sandy chuckled. “Eww, no, that’s gross. Well, that was a weird phrase for sure. Must be a poor translation from your native, right?”

“Y-yeah, something like that.”

“But really, bro, if you can fully heal my horn, you’ll be my best bro forever! No, you already are!” Sandy raised his hooves in the air, almost jumping on the couch.

“Really appreciate what you did for the lad, even without asking anything in return. That’s something I respect deeply,” Steel said in a serious tone, holding out a hoof for me.

“I second that.” Fix similarly held out his hoof from across the table.

“No big deal, guys.” I shook their hooves firmly. “You really helped us there. It was only natural we somehow tried to help you, too.”

“Oh, what a rowdy bunch we do have here!” I heard Flo’s voice from the side. “Your friends, Ray?”

“Yep, they’re those guys I met at the station.”

“Really? Well, hello, fine colts! Want a snack, or perhaps a drink?”

“Thanks, beautiful, but I’m afraid after last night some light green salad would be the only thing my stomach won’t reject right now.” Steel chuckled with a wry smile. “And a cup of coffee. Double, please,” he said with a broad smile.

“Same, please. You, Sandy?” asked Fix.

“What? Me? I dunno. Same, I guess?”

“Great, I’ll be right back, colts! And don’t make too much ruckus.”

Watching her go with a dreamy gaze, Steel finally turned back to us, making a quiet whistle. “I be damned, dat flanks! Just look, quality stuff!” He exclaimed in a hush, a wide grin on his face.

“Yeah, not bad, not bad,” Fix responded, nodding his head.

“Well, I dunno. She is fine, I guess, but not really my age for me to consider her,” Sandy put in, shrugging.

“What do you know, lad? You’re too young for this stuff.” Steel laughed, shaking his head.

“There will come a day when I’ll say you are too old for this stuff,” Sandy grumbled.

“Ah, you little… I hope I’ll die before such a day comes.”

“D-die? Buck, still can’t get used to your frontier humor, Steel,” Sandy replied with a wry smile.

“Don’t get your hopes too high, Steel. She has a husband twice your weight in muscles alone,” I chuckled.

Steel snorted. “Who said I was gonna woo her? I can just appreciate some good flanks, can’t I? And I think you’re exaggerating quite a bit here.”

“No, I’m dead serious. The guy is huge. Ex-monster hunter, by the way…” Steel coughed nervously after I said that.

“C-can you please stop using the word ‘dead’ so casually, guys? It gives me the creeps,” Sandy weakly protested.

“Ya’ll get used to it. We’re not in ‘dat fancy Canterlot, ya know, where mares have bigger balls than stallions.” Fix said casually. “C’mon, we’re working almost on the outskirts of ‘dat bucking jungle-o-death, so stallion up already, Sandy! Won’t ya be able to just squash any vermin which comes outta it to hunt us? Now that your horn is fixed, with your talent and all?”

“Oh… Oh. Oh, yeah! Now I-I totally can! But that’s still a little scary…”

“Relax guys, the really scary stuff keeps far from the jungle borders for some reason. We’ve seen it ourselves, and some common animals are not too much of a threat, anyway. Timberwolves are the most you might see there.”

“Timberwolves?” Sandy shuddered. “Now that’s not too reassuring… but I think it still somewhat is,” Sandy said, getting into a better mood.

While we were talking, I noticed the amount of stares our table was receiving from all across the dining hall. Well, we weren’t the standard of being discreet to begin with, making a lot of noise. Those were not wary or curious looks I’m already used to — our table grabbed the attention of the female part of the visitors, for the most part. Their focus fell on the trio of stallions, obviously. Well, I can see why. Steel is a rather prominent stallion, and Fix is also not very far off. Sandy, on the other hand, is very young and — rather cute for a stallion from my human point of view. I’m sure there are lots of mares who might have a taste for somebody like him. To be fair, some of those mares throw me a few interested glances, too, occasionally, but those are brief and far between.

That gave me an assumption that I might seem, while definitely not repulsive, but not too appealing to the regular pony mares either. At least appearance-wise, for better or worse. Well, the unknown factor can be playing a big role in this, too. So, my girls might be viewed as having strange tastes by the others, I suppose. As for me, I don’t care much. Maybe it’s for the better, as having just three mares around can already prove to be a challenge for me. So the fact the mares won’t be leaping at me at first sight might be an advantage in my situation.

“By the by, where are the others?” Fix asked.

“Sapphira will be here real soon, and Lily is out-of-town today.”

“I see.” Steel smiled. “I hope Sapphira isn’t being bullied here, is she? With her being a changeling and all that…”

“I dare anyone to bully her.” I harrumphed. “Speaking of bullying, that Mountain guy tried to bully a maid in my presence. You’ve heard what happened then,” I chuckled.

“So it was all because of a mare? Daym, colt!” Fix laughed.

“Oh, by the way, it’s her, the beige one.” I nodded towards Sugar, who was talking with Flo at the moment. Noticing my gaze, she waved her wing at me.

“Pretty! Like, really.” Sandy looked at me, smiling.

“So that’s the kind of mares you like, Sandy?” Steel chuckled.

“What’s so bad about it?”

“No, nothing. You just never said it to us before.”

Having finished talking with Flo, Sugar immediately trotted to our table, and from the get-go leaned over it to nuzzle my face, keeping herself steady with the help of her wings.

“Your friends?” She beamed a smile at everybody around the table.

“Yeah. Guys, that’s Sugar Spice, my — uh, well — alright, she’s my marefirend.”

My blunt statement made Sugar’s cheeks redden a little, but it was too obvious how much she enjoyed me saying it out loud. I thought it was better that I tell the guys this news, to avoid any misunderstanding later.

“Wow, bro! Just… wow! Oh, sorry, miss. I’m Sandy Crunch. It’s good to know you.”

“Steel Sheen. My pleasure.”

“Quick Fix,” — He tipped his stetson hat he kept even indoors, — “at your service.”

“Oh, it’s so nice to meet you all. I just wanted to say ‘hi’ while I was here, still have a lot of work up there,” — she pointed with her wing upwards, — “so I’ll be going. Have a good day.” Sugar beamed us a smile and trotted away.

“Bro, you sure know how to capture a mare’s heart… She seemed so — genuine. Will you teach me?”

“Pfft…” I huffed. “What is there to teach? Just look around. At least several mares around here are salivating at you all, and I’m sure I have nothing to do with that.”

Fix interjected, “Salivating is one thing, but to have genuine feelings… That’s a little different matter.” He sniffed the air, closing his eyes. “Just smell the air, pardner. D’ ya feel it? That’s the smell of love,” He drawled, chuckling.

I raised my brow. Was he talking figuratively, or did he mean that scent I felt around her the whole evening yesterday? I took it for a perfume at first, but it seems to be a natural scent. I once again looked at Fix, and decided that he meant the former.

“That, mah friend,” — Fix looked at me meaningfully, — “the way the mare acts… The way she looks at ya, the way she nuzzles ya, that trot with swaying flanks… And I’m not sure what those wings must mean, being all on show, but must be something, too. It all takes a little more time than that, ya know? She is really into ya, and ya met her when? The night before yesterday?” Fix chuckled. “I don’t believe in love at first sight, so ya must’ve impressed her. Mightily so.”

“I don’t know, it was almost the same with all three of them, and they assured me ponies are quick to form bonds, so I didn’t think really deep into it…”

“Fast to get together and start relationships? Yup, sure. Fast to jump into bed? Yea, maybe, though that depends. This, however? Not so much for it to happen in a day or two. She must have some really serious raisins. Conquering a girl by felling a monster like in fairy tales? Now I’ve seen it with my own eyes, Ray.” Fix laughed, without a hint of any mocking. “That’s great, actually. I’m happy for you.”

“Now that’s what a frontier stallion must be like, lads! Badass like Tartarus!” Steel chuckled with an approving nod. “To tell you the truth, we don’t really lack mares. Even here, in Appleloosa, where stallions are plenty, and mares are few. None of us really wanted to make a herd yet, though.”

“What? Few? Holy shit, if that’s ‘few’, I’m a little frightened to see what ‘many’ means,” I thought as I listened.

“Well, I have some thoughts about two mares. Twin sisters. Really nice and have plots like you won’t be-ll-ii-eve! Well, uh, this here lady really beats them, I must admit.” His eye darted in the direction of the kitchen door.

“Here you go rambling about flanks and plots again, Steel,” Sandy said with sarcasm.

“Shush, lad. Stay silent if you don’t understand flanks like a real stallion should.”

“I’m not an earth pony, you know, to be obsessed with flanks and plots.”

Steel just waved a hoof at him dismissively. “Well, doesn’t matter, you’ll get it when you grow up a little. So, we met for the first time accidentally during one of the festivities in the town. Not that long ago. One thing led to another, and we were not exactly sober by that time, too, and when the morning came, I found myself in an unfamiliar bed, with two mares cooking breakfast for me in their kitchen… Holy Celestia, they were wild like if they were in estrus.”

“Estrus? Fuck, do they go into heat? When? For how long? Library, my hopes lie with you.”

“So that’s where you disappeared to that time, Steel,” Fix replied, snickering.

Steel just shrugged, continuing with his story. “It all smelled more of a wild passion than anything else, and we didn’t really spend too much time together, so I thought it would be just a onetime occasion, but then… Well, you can guess it wasn’t the last time we met. And… you know, some mares just want to have a stallion and a herd, maybe foals, too. Just for the status it gives them among other mares, and just because they ‘should’. That stuff is very important for some, so they can go through with it, even without much feelings for a stallion. I wasn’t sure if we really had that spark between each other. They already asked me out on a date a few times, and did it properly, almost by the book, so to speak. Approached me all dressed up and stuff… I’m sure as Tartarus, they would’ve brought up creating a herd there. Scary…” He shivered slightly. “So I made some lame excuses and slipped away, and then that happened two more times…”

“You know, yesterday I met a stallion with almost the same issue,” I chuckled. “Well, not really the same. Namely, he is married to his work, while obviously having mares he likes around, but doing nothing to change anything. And he is very much like you, too. Come on, Steel. Maybe I don’t know many ponies around here yet, but all the mares I talked to seemed really honest. I don’t think they can entertain such devious thoughts like those you mentioned.”

“You haven’t been to Canterlot yet, Ray. Or Manehattan. You might change your mind quickly,” Sandy said with a wry smile, and Fix just silently nodded.

“Buck, Ray.” Steel stomped his hoof on the table. “You might be right, actually. We’re in Appleloosa, after all. Folks are different here. I’ll just have to bite it and see how it goes from there. Maybe I just didn’t want to lose my freedom and kept turning them down, making up one excuse after another.”

“That’s common for stallions around here, ya know? Nothing new ‘ere,” Fix commented with a tinge of apathy in his voice. “Most are coming for big bags-o-bits, not for mares. Y’all came here the same, and some of that rubbed off on me as well, I s’pose.”

“Fair point.” I replied, tapping my chin, then turned back to Steel.

“Those mares really seem to like me, and I don’t want to be a complete jerk to them, so… Buck, I already did it thrice to them and they still aren’t giving up on me. That leaves a bad aftertaste, sort of…” He sighed with a grunt.

“Remember the flanks, Steel,” I said in an insinuating voice, chuckling and playing with my brow. “Or one day they might just float away to another stallion.”

“Ye-e-es, their flanks…” Steel’s gaze became unfocused. “Yeah, I’m so gonna bucking do it! I’m gonna ask them out myself. I can already imagine their jaws dropping. That’ll be funny to witness.”

“Did somepony say something about flanks?” Giggling, Flo appeared beside us, making Steel cough into his hoof awkwardly. She was peppy as always, bringing a tray with three plates of green salad with indiscernible ingredients and four cups of coffee. “One is for you, dear,” she said to me kindly, proceeding to put the tray onto the table and distribute the dishes and cups. “Your food is almost ready. She is not here yet?”

“Yeah, not yet. No idea what takes her so long.”

“We mares tend to spend more time preening up than we suppose we would need, so just deal with it,” she chuckled.

“I just hope the food won’t turn cold by the time she comes down.”

“It shouldn’t. Well, bon appétit, gentestallions. Call me if you need anything.”

After receiving the guys’ thanks, she took the tray and left. My eyes involuntarily fell on her swaying backside, full and round, remembering Steel’s remarks. “Well, shit! I can’t say I don’t like what I see… Because I do.” One of my eyebrows furrowed, and I chewed my cheek, remembering her soft hugs from yesterday. That’s really not something I should think about.

“Oh, huh? Judging by those eyes of yours, I can see you finally understand what I’m talking about, unlike certain unicorns… I just knew you would.” Steel grinned. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think she fancies you, Ray,” he said thoughtfully.

“Well, we sure like each other, just not romantically.”

“I’d say that’s impossible, but alright, if you say so.” He decided to drop the subject. “Say, do you plan on doing anything tomorrow? Second half of the day. We have a few extra days off the management gave us for working an extra day at the station, with all that tunnel stuff and all the ruckus going about it. So I thought we might just hang out together while we have time.”

“I’m free, for the most part. Girls wanted to have something like a mare-only party or the like tomorrow, so I’ll be alone. Room ‘407’, if anything.”

“Alrighty, then we can even start earlier. We’ll catch up with you at four. What do you say?”

“Four? You have some grand plans, it seems, going out this early. But okay, all good, I’ll make sure to return by four, then.”

“Sounds like a plan, guys,” Fix replied.

“I’m in! And I’m paying for Ray. That’s not up for a debate.” Sandy chipped in.

The sound of hoof-falls drew my attention. Sapphira has finally arrived, her mane and tail combed neatly, and her face was refreshed. Nothing hinted at the fact she had not the best morning today.

“Oh, it’s you guys? Hi!” Sapphira waved her hoof, smiling. “Can I?” she asked Sandy, intending to sit beside me.

“Oh, yea, sure.” He stood up, letting her take a seat beside me. She sat down, leaning sideways against me. The table and couch were long enough for us three to fit in there.

Sapphira looked over at our group, squinting her eyes.

“Steel, Fix? You don’t seem to be alright, if what I feel is true, and Sandy… is drunk?”

“Oh, is that one of your changeling powers?” Steel asked. “But yeah, we both have a hangover, and the headache is already settling inside of my head, to be honest.” Steel rubbed his temples. “Damn this handover. Sandy will have it worse, I’m sure, when he finishes sobering up, which won’t take long.”

Fix just nodded, propping his head with a hoof. “Yesterday evening, Sandy got a tad overexcited about his healed horn and so we had more cider and other stuff than we should have drank as a result… Shouldn’t have mixed it all.”

Sapphira turned to Sandy with a surprised look. “Oh? Your horn, really? That’s good to hear. Congratulations, Sandy! I know how important it is.”

“Yea, t-thanks — S-Sapphira.”

Sandy obviously still felt not too comfortable being stared by a changeling at such a proximity. Her longer neck was even making her slightly higher than he was. Or… did she grow taller? I can’t say for sure.

“Damn guys, why didn’t you tell me? Come on, give me your hooves.” I held out my hand.

“This is just a trivial matter. And they were struggling all the time, sitting here and talking with me?” I thought as I put my Life Essence to work, letting it flow through my hand to their hooves, its faint glow disappearing, being absorbed into their forelegs and spreading further.

“You’ll feel better in a few minutes, guys.”

“Maybe it’s just me, but I already feel better, thanks,” said Steel after around half a minute, rubbing his temple with a thoughtful face.

“Me too,” Fix added. “You know, it’s nice having you around, Ray… You’re very useful.” He smirked.

“Why do I feel sober suddenly?” Sandy raised his brow.

“Enjoy your clear head, devoid of a headache, Sandy,” I chuckled, reaching my hand to him behind Sapphira’s back and ruffling his mane once again and scratching under his ear, receiving a content grunt from him in return. His eyes lidded in relaxing pleasure, while Sapphira threw him an envious gaze as I did so, but didn’t say a thing, just making her more comfortable at my side.

Soon, our food arrived while we talked with each other. Sapphira was not too talkative, but she is often like that around others. She finished with her porridge and now had some hesitations about the omelet.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Well… You know, we, changelings… We lay eggs,” Sapphira said the latter phrase in a whisper, taking another whiff of the omelet.

“Eggs? Damn, should’ve thought of it earlier…”

“But it smells so good…” She finally moved a piece to her mouth and took a bite, chewing carefully with a pondering look. The juicy flavor of fried tomatoes mixed with cheese and basil worked wonders. “What can I say… Guess I’ll say the chicken eggs don’t count and be fine with it,” she said cheerily, now digging in without any hesitation with gusto.

“That’s the spirit!” I said, being already finished with my plate.

“Take one of these sandwiches. I’m sure eating both will be too much for me.” Sapphira moved them towards me. “It’s already surprising how much I actually ate for just breakfast. Do you want me to become all chubby and soft?”

“Now that’d be an interesting experience. But no, not with your high metabolism.”

“Metha-wut?” Sapphira asked, with food still in her mouth. Yeah, we’ll have to work on her manners a little, but that’s okay.

“Metabolism, it means it’s hard for you to get plump unless it somehow slows down. You burn your food really fast. I’ve already checked. And you are underweight, so stop talking and finish with your food.”

To tell the truth, changelings seem to have an innate high metabolism, providing them with more explosive strength for their size, but at the cost of need for extra food, and probably emotions, too, in their case. It makes sense, considering Sapphira’s state when I found her.

“Fine, fine, ash you shay, luv,” she mumbled, digging into her food.

I smirked, taking one sandwich for myself.

“So, what y’all gonna do today?” asked Fix.

“Well… As you can see, we’ve solved our lodging problems, and I’ve got my hands on some bits selling some stuff we found in the jungle, so we’re good. We need to do some shopping, and I also want to visit a library. I really need certain books and hope I can find those there. Then we might just roam the town for a while. I guess we won’t be back until evening,” I answered, taking a bite of the sandwich. “And when the sun rolls down, I planned for some physical training. At least I won’t suffer from the heat that way.”

“Ah see.” He shook his head vigorously, then his gaze shifted upwards. “Hay, mah head really doesn’t hurt anymore! And ‘ere Ah thought Ah was gonna have a bad day — Ah still have some stuff to take care of. Thanks again, pardner.”

“Yeah, we all have some stuff to attend to today,” added Steel, and got serious with his salad, now that his stomach didn’t feel so bad anymore. “Glad we could catch up with you all here before you left for town.”

We finished our meals and talked for a little while longer before we said goodbye to the guys and went upstairs. Flo and Sugar were already nowhere to be seen, probably busy somewhere else.

Today I opted to wear only a light shirt and trousers we bought yesterday. It was fitting a bit clumsily, but ponies around had no idea how it should look on me, so I guess nobody really cared. Finally, I took my hat, which could be called a really fine piece of craftsmanship. I can say I’m even proud to have it — it’s fitting perfectly, protects me from heat, and, most importantly, looks badass, like nothing a regular pony might wear. But, well, Stout crafted it with a minotaur in mind, I suppose, and those guys are not into colorful and peaceful style.

I stood before the mirror with an intent to put the hat on and noticed one peculiar detail — now I had somewhat more hair on my head than I should have by now. Feeling it with my hand, I found its length had already reached almost a centimeter. Isn’t it too fast? That might cause me additional expenses at the barbershop, but whatever, it feels nice to have it back. Putting on my hat with a smile, I called for Sapphira, who once again wore her light dress, and we finally left for town.