Boundary Point

The window of the small wooden inn betrayed activity to the evening of the outside world as Twilight and Xavier were scurrying about. Both parties were inspecting each other’s haul. Twilight walked past a tightly bound package of bright red and blue cloth that fell out of Xavier's backpack, then stopped and prodded the sleeping bag he acquired for her with her ankle, “It almost looks like some strange kind of leather…”

“It’s a particular variation of what we call polyester. It’s exceptional for outdoor use in the cold because of its hydrophobic properties. It will be especially helpful if we were to find ourselves in freezing rain,” Xavier said as he was looking over the receipt from the apothecary. “Also good job on what you got at the apothecary. Though…” Xavier stuck his hand in the medicinal satchel and pulled out an orange bottle with blue diamond pills.

Twilight turned and her eyes widened, without thinking she blurted out, “Drop it!”

“It’s just medic-”

“That could adversely affect you!” Twilight took five leaps before jumping and popping the medicine out from Xavier’s hand.

“What the?”

“Unless you want to be hard for a few hours,” Twilight blurted out. She then froze and slowly turned her head towards Xavier. “I can explain.”

“I don’t even know was going on?” Xavier looked over at the orange bottle that was now lying on the floor.

“The apothecary must have accidentally packed it,” Twilight said as she put herself between it and Xavier. “I didn’t mean to…”

Xavier just stared at Twilight, his head tilted slightly.

“Okay, let me explain.” Twilight began. She could feel his steely eyes bore into her as she started, “The apothecary and I were discussing a few things and she said that if you’re having problems,” Twilight froze and lost her sentence. “I said no but…”

Xavier continued to stare at Twilight, narrowing his eyes. She broke eye contact and looked left and right, horror welling up within her. Her chest tightened, as, despite not looking at him, she could feel him. The world seemed a little darker and time slowed to a crawl. She could feel her ears starting to droop, so she tightened her muscles on the back of her head. A sensation deep within was bubbling to the surface. One she felt years ago when she discovered that she had nothing to report. Nothing to say. Her front knees almost buckled, she used every ounce of willpower she had to force herself to continue standing up straight.

Then, suddenly Xavier’s eyes popped off of Twilight and glanced up as he slapped the receipt, saying in a chipper voice, “Oh, that’s fine.”

“What?” Twilight let loose from her lips. Her ears flung forward as confusion took hold of her face.

“Well the math shows that the money you spent plus the money returned is commiserate with what the receipt says,” Xavier started. “And since you have such a problem with stealing, I highly doubt that you just swiped it. And it wasn’t like you were hiding it from me.”

Twilight let out a sigh of relief. The muscles on her rear legs relaxed, her brow eased.

“Though that does beg the question, what are we going to do with that stuff?” Xavier said, walking over and picking up the bottle.

“Return it obviously,” Twilight said out of reflex.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Xavier said, looking at the bottle.

Twilight’s features froze, then she slowly twisted her head toward the human standing next to her, “What?”

“If we’re going a good distance away from any Union cities, at the very least this could come in handy as a bargaining chip,” Xavier said, as he walked over to the medicinal bag and slipped in the bottle.

“Okay, time out,” Twilight said as she finally faced Xavier. “You want to keep the stuff?”

“Yeah…” Xavier said in an almost crazed, guttural voice while looking back over at Twilight.

“Okay, but what if I –”

“Despite the fact that you sang out and snagged me, you practically threw a conniption fit when I was taking supplies that might’ve been destroyed anyways,” Xavier started.

“You were stealing!” Twilight snapped at Xavier.

“Point is,” Xavier turned away and tightened the strap on the medicinal bag, “If you had such a deep problem with something as small as that, I doubt that you would have had the malicious intent to drug me, nor the composure to do it without me noticing. And besides,” the fingers on Xavier’s right wrapped hand rolled up into an open cylinder, then moved in front of his crotch while pumping it to and fro a few times, “I can literally take care of myself.”

Twilight looked at Xavier’s right hand as her mind went to work. The sight of the human on stage at the symposium standing tall next to the grey mare moments before they joined roiled with what her imagination dreamed of what Xavier looked like without clothes, and her mind made the logical leaps, painting a picture each time. A tender yearning pressure crawled along her waist as the higher parts of her understood immediately that unlike any pony, mare or stallion who would seek out a partner when the mood seized them, he, like an extremely talented unicorn, had no need for another. He was like Rarity, whose talents with telekinesis she knew, afforded her such relief when she was simply in need of relaxation outside of estrus. And in her mind’s eye for those few moments of silence, she saw Xavier in the middle of autocoitus joined back to himself by those nubs of flesh kept at the end of his right limb.

“I see…” Twilight trailed off.

Xavier nodded, then placed the medicinal bag back on the bed. “Do you have enough thornback supplies for yourself?”

Twilight shook her head, she pulled her mind from the image her inner eye created and answered, “It’s…, sorry,” she stumbled for a second. “It’s a three month supply, we’ll be in another town well before I run out.”

Xavier once again nodded and turned away from Twilight, “Out of curiosity, I don’t suppose you checked on the rails did you?”

“Rails are down due to Manehatten being a central hub. Besides the single track paths, other outlets are afraid that trains will get stranded nearby if rioters tear up the tracks or a sufficiently pissed and magically competent unicorn puts her mind to ruining the lines,” Twilight exhaled. “We should try to find a wagon caravan.”

“The wagon trains where Earth Ponies pull giant freight?”

“Exactly, and if one has the room, we can get pulled at a good discount,” Twilight answered.

“I’ve never been comfortable with the idea of being pulled by sapient minds,” Xavier muttered.

Twilight lifted her head and raised an eye at Xavier, “What does that mean?”

Xavier took two steps back before starting, “Just the idea of being pulled by Earth Ponies from point A to point B doesn’t feel right.”

“So? That’s their job. That’s how they get paid,” Twilight answered. “And if they did mind, they wouldn’t be offering the service.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Xavier said, bouncing his right hand up and down. “Where I come from, engines do the hard work. If the terrain is not paved or something, you would either get a special vehicle or get airlifted, though an absolute unusual situations we would have our…” Xavier looked at Twilight, then turned his head away and quickly said, “We would have our beasts of burden do the pulling.”

“Beasts of burden?”

Xavier’s eyes bounced left and right before he started, “You have horses on this side if I recall, correct?”

“Yes…”

“And it’s generally acknowledged that ponies and horses on this side are close in many ways, right?”

“I mean,” Twilight started. “If you’re implying that we’re closely related, maybe in body and shape, but not in posture, mind and face. And besides, they’re absolute behemoths compared to us.”

“Okay, now bear with me,” Xavier clasped his two hands together as if in prayer. “If you could get those horses to do what you wanted, when you wanted, and if you could not perform very advanced types of magics, they would take a lot of the burden out of your workload, right?”

“Yes…”

“Where I come from, the range of domesticated animals we have to pick and choose from is much wider than yours. Including our world’s version of the horse...”

Twilight slowly started, “So, what you’re saying is that it’s awkward for you because we look too much like horses and you’re uncomfortable with the idea of Earth Ponies pulling the wagons we would be riding… despite the fact that for them, there is little extra effort involved?”

Xavier bobbed his head left to right, his right eyebrow shooting up for just a second before going, “Yeah…”

“Would you prefer to actually walk the distance?” Twilight smirked while scoffed. “I mean, hitching a ride with a caravan isn’t inexpensive, but it’s cheaper than a train ticket. But ignoring that, do I really look like a horse to you?”

Xavier turned away.

Twilight’s incredulous face vanished, a slight frown sweeping over her as she blinked. Her eyes widened at Xavier, then she looked away and gasped, “Oh Celestia, Rarity was… right.”

Silence buzzed through the air as the two stood still. Xavier twisted harder to look away from Twilight as her gaze slowly floated from the human to the wooden floor.

“I’m going back downstairs,” Xavier said, breaking the silence. He turned his back on Twilight as he opened the door and left the room, leaving the Unicorn alone, staring at the floor.

Twilight laid on her bed, the second one yet again. She rolled over three times as her face rubbed the pillows over and over again. It was smaller, her bed. Just as circular as the main one, but a quarter its size. The scent of sweat from previous occupants made her groan as even against her coat, the bedding was itchy, like hay in autumn.

Kicking herself out of bed, she gave it a light buck with the tip of her right rear hoof, making it slide a few inches as she approached the window. Most of Luna’s night was still there. The scene of the city was mostly black with the exception of a few glowing streetlamps. Looking back over her shoulder, she realized that the main bed was still empty for a second night in a row. It’s large sheets still stretched across the circumference, and it’s pillows undisturbed.

Twilight shook her head and yawned. Taking 12 steps, she walked out the room and descended down the shallow stairs. The tavern was loud, just as jubilant as last night. The clanging of drinks being placed on tables and the rearranging of sitting stools flickered her ear as she walked down and quickly peered in.

The human was still at the table from the night before, while the inn owner was across from him, a serious look on her face as Xavier suddenly made a move. Then the old mare shook her head and made her own move.

Still at it with this nonsense?

Twilight turned around and quietly walked out the inn. The street was empty, the gas lights low, but the cobblestone walkways had a faint glimmer as a cold breeze rolled over her. She looked up at the stars, and started to reminisce. The town reminded her of Ponyville, but much more developed. The houses and shops more clustered and less integrated with nature. But they were both quiet at night. Twilight could hear the cry of frogs and the occasional screeching of crows. Twilight’s right ear jerked as she could hear, far away the sound of something. An instrument playing, fading in and out of silence with the wind.

The song cried and whined as it twisted and turned around Twilight’s ears, then suddenly, for moments at a time, stopped. Cut off by the howl of Timberwolves.

Twilight thought to herself, Fluttershy always kept her fauna well regulated. But I guess for ponies who aren’t Fluttershy, keeping the animals tame must be much more of a handful.

Twilight turned and entered back into the inn. She closed the door, the shrill of a surprised mare rose up from the tavern, followed by the sound of a familiar voice grunting.

“Dammit,” Xavier said chewing on his lip.

Twilight peered into the tavern once more, the shadows of sapience danced across the walls as the fire crackled and the evening wore on. More ponies and griffins poured into the inn and made merry. Across the room, a small group of Ponies and Griffins watched as two Griffins of green and blue played a game atop a board of six levels reaching from the table to the sky. The blue one carefully pinched her front claws picking up a small winged figurine and raised it two levels. Then, with the ends of her beak raised in a sly smile, simply said, “Highest Perch.” as the surrounding onlookers screamed with excitement.

“Stick those eggs in your roost!” screamed an onlooker Griffin at the green player as she rolled her eyes and glumly drooped onto the table.

“Pay up,” the blue Griffin smiled as she extended out her claws.

Twilight turned away and saw Xavier still at the table with Golden Leaf. He was focused on the game of Commune in front of him. Then he reached out with his hand and removed several tokens.

“Didn’t expect that did you,” the old mare laughed.

“We may be 10 to 0,” Xavier snorted. “But with each successive attempt, I get slightly better.”

“I wasn’t keeping count,” the mare said, glancing at the roaring hearth. She then magically started taking her tokens and pieces as Xavier was, and then shuffled the multiple decks in midair. “Your lead mare hasn’t come down in a spell. You think she’s okay?”

“After everything that she’s had to deal with me the last few hours? I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s going to wipe her hoof of me soon,” he answered, moving gold coins around on his side of the field.

Golden Leaf quickly shuffled and laid the decks down as Xavier quickly cut them and they both resumed play. Background jubilation of slightly drunk ponies and griffins stirred the common area. Candlelight flickered as the giant hearth the middle roared while Twilight kept her distance, watching Xavier and Golden Leaf continue the game.

“Oh she seems pleasant enough,” the old mare said taking the first turn. “Transpecies herds are always on unstable footing initially. But I’ve seen them work out. That said, is the issue a disagreement on who to bring in as your first new member?”

“No,” Xavier said, quickly exchanging resources, then drawing a card. “… Dark Magics have seeped into my wheat stores,” Xavier reached over and picked up a black wheat token and placed it with his only other wheat token. Then, narrowing his eyes at the board, he said, “I’m moving all my wheat from the left storage to the right.”

Golden Leaf laughed, “Okay…”

Xavier moved the resources, then rolled a dice, “Even.”

“Nothing was lost then,” Golden Leaf said.

“I repeat, this time from right to left,” Xavier said.

Golden Leaf raised an eyebrow.

Once again, Xavier rolled the dice, “Even.”

“Okay… nothing was lost…”

“Repeat, left to right.”

“What in the Tartarus?”

Xavier kept cycling his wheat between the two spots. Over and over again until he finally said, “Odds, and a 5, so I lose my entire supply of wheat.”

Twilight blinked, then poked her head out further to get a better view. She slid next to the wall and flickered her ear towards the human and mare as she raised an eye at what Xavier had just done.

“That’s, that’s not how you play this at all!”

“What do you mean? There is no rule saying I can’t move the set of wheat a limited number of times between two adjacent granaries. Its an ad hoc pseudo-deteriorating operation for me,” Xavier said.

“Deteriorating operation?”

“It’s a minor flaw in the game, you and the player base can easily fix it in the future by changing the rules on how many times one is allowed to transfer resources between nodes.”

“Nodes?”

“It’s taken me a while but I’ve been able to abstract elements of this game. It’s effectively a full trinary tree graph, so to move wheat from any of the nodes on the same level, it must go through at least one node higher on the tree. But since there are no limits to how many immediately adjacent nodes I can choose to pass basic resources through during this phase, while I do have to roll for each edge after the first move on the movement chain, and while there is only a one in six chance of losing bits and pieces of the resource being moved, if I repeat transfer n many times, I’m guaranteed to lose the corrupted resource at random eventually.”

“But that’s at the risk of losing the other resources,” the old mare raised an eye.

“True, but the price for that resource staying in that pile is far greater than what the pile's estimated worth. And since the resources extracted at random, there still remains a chance I can salvage what’s left of the pile,” Xavier said. “In this case I lost the other wheat as well, but its well worth ditching it to prevent the long term effects of that corruption token.”

“Okay, Xavier I need to explain this to you. This is supposed to be a game that simulates running a community,” the old mare said exasperated.

“I mean, it’s no more a representation of running a community then chess is a simulation of war. Both possess the trappings and themes of what they appear to simulate, but both have very poor fidelity to what is claimed that they represent. Especially with respect to increments of action being discrete. Just as opposing sides of the war, two communities are not going to just stop harvesting because it’s the other communities turn,” Xavier said, scratching the back of his head.

“Maybe so,” the old mare said taking a sip of her cider. “But this game doesn’t just represent a community, just like how chess doesn’t just represent war. For this game, you can go one level down and argue that it’s more like running a herd. For chess, you could argue that it’s more a game of political maneuvering then actual warfare.”

Xavier shook his head, “But it doesn’t matter. The way you train for those roles are direct practice and observation. If there was a real store of wheat, and I knew that one of the bushels were tainted, I would not just let it stay there and neither would it’s caretaker. I would either make an effort at trying to identify and remove it, or I’d burn the whole thing.”

“But that’s the price you paid for that little stunt you pulled,” the old mare rolled her eyes.

“True, but there’s a mechanic that gives me an out. Meaning that the cost of failure wasn’t as high as it initially seemed it. Yes I might lose the wrap, but better that than letting it sit and slowly deteriorate everything around. And don’t talk like we’re trying to play out a simulation of running a community, otherwise we would not be playing antagonistic toward each other like you said before. Most communities try to stay in each other’s good graces in order to hedge against disaster.”

The old mare glanced over at her pint then glanced back over at the playing board, “Perhaps for the communities out on the frontier were disaster is literally a rainy day away. But more civilized locations? You would be surprised at how apathetic neighbors can be to each other.”

“Yeah, but tell me a place where allies are at each other’s throats?”

“Court,” Twilight said as she walked towards the two. Her face focused on Xaiver.

Xavier turned as Golden Leaf looked up, then nodded at Twilight, “Indeed. Court.”

Xavier’s hand curled as the corner of his lips fell inwards.

“The intrigue of court is a place where nearly everyone is on the same team, but are at each other’s throats,” Golden Leaf said. “Two custodians over neighboring lands might conspire to sabotage the others efforts in order to elevate their position.”

“Yeah, but the total collapse of one land is a net loss for the other,” Xavier stammered.

“As someone who has only been a visitor to the inner workings of a protectorate,” Twilight Sparkle said, looking into Xavier’s eyes and giving a very shallow nod. “While everyone works towards harmony, there are plenty who would show the rightful ruler that they would be better custodians of a land, if, say they are thriving while their neighbor is falling apart. Then perhaps, they might go to the rightful ruler and say, ‘Give me that land as well to look after and I promise your people will thrive under my guidance’.”

Xavier shook his head, then extended his bound arm across the table and lightly flicked his Town Hall piece such that it fell over. He then stood up and stumbled for a few moments before leaving the tavern and walking upstairs.

Twilight and Golden Leaf watched Xavier wobble away before the old mare spoke, “He’s dumb in the worst way.” Golden Leaf pushed at the table, then took a swig of her drink before turning back to Twilight, “Too clever by half, you know you’re going to have to keep a watchful eye on him right? That’s even if he’s worth keeping around. You know there are better ones out there right?”

“Are you saying I should abandon him?”

“Not at all,” Golden Leaf said. “We’re close enough to Manehatten that seeing some of their kind attached to a Mare isn’t too uncommon. But this one, he bucks when you try to educate him. If you plan on keeping him around, he will need a cautious taming.”

“Tell me about it…”

The old mare froze for a moment and said to Twilight, “That said, if you can get him properly broken in, he would be quite the asset to you and your future herd sisters.”

Twilight’s ears fluttered for a second before turning to the old mare, “Excuse me?”

“He and I’ve been playing for at least 10 hours, and that is ignoring last night's session,” she said. “It’s only in the last two that he started to really push me. Still not a serious enough player to make me buckle down, but still. If you can properly break him in and put him to task on something, he would definitely be an asset to you.”

“But that’s the thing, he’s been fighting me every step of the way,” Twilight said, lowering her head.

Golden Leaf looked at Twilight, then raised an eye and asked “Have you been properly draining him?”