Boundary Point

“So here’s the plan,” Twilight said to the human as they were packing. Golden morning light poured forth from the room’s only window as the sound of birds sang, “We’re going to go to the caravan stop and see if we can hitch a ride to Sawdust Sunder. We’re going to be riding the boundary between the Kingdom and Union until we find somewhere safe enough to cross.”

“Which is?” Xavier asked, picking the tightly bound folded cloth of blue and red that had fallen out the day before and putting it in his backpack.

Twilight turned to Xavier and raised an eye, then flicked her tail to the side.

“Had to try,” Xavier said, rolling his neck, then picking up his backpack and dropping it on the floor.

“Now when we get there, just stand there and look handsome,” Twilight said as she turned to continue her inspection of her saddlebag. “And let me do all the talking, alright? If you have any questions, pull me aside and whisper them, right? And no, they’re not going to have a second bed for me to sleep in, but thankfully you got the sleeping bags.”

Xavier shifted uncomfortably, placing his bound hand behind his neck, “I’m still not onboard with letting anything pull me.”

“Well, I’ve been pulling you since Manehatten,” Twilight grunted, slipping the medicinal bag into her saddlebag with her mouth.

“No, you’ve been guiding. And I’ve been walking with my own two feet,” Xavier grunted. “Vast difference between being pulled and walking under my own power.”

“I suppose you would turn down a train ride because of all the work the ponies at the front do?” Twilight retorted, flickering her ears for a split second. “Or is it because you’re being pulled by the work produced by ‘Beasts of Burden’”?

Xavier stopped in place, turned and narrowed his eyes at Twilight, “Stop that.”

“Stop what?” Twilight turned her head to her companion.

“There is a big difference between forcing someone to pull by exerting their muscles as the primary method of work as opposed to them getting a machine to do it for them.”

“They’re still using their muscles,” Twilight answered. She then turned away from Xavier and continued her packing.

“Yeah, to operate the machine. Not to produce the force needed to pull others.”

“They’re doing the same thing despite using a machine intermediary to act as a force multiplier.”

Xavier said nothing, then turned to double check his belongings.

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“No, because you’re not interested in a dialectic. You’re interested in beating me over the head in a verbal debate.”

“No I’m no-”

“Then why did you throw my beast of burden term back at me?” Xavier shot Twilight a glare. “I said it to get the point across that, from my point of view, having others, even domesticated animals do work for me is something I don’t feel entirely comfortable with because I view both the term it’s self and the act as unsightly.”

“I’m just using your language,” Twilight fired back.

“No,” Xavier said, his voice growing a pitch higher. “You just want to punish me for wanting to abstain from using other ponies to travel because I hold your kind to a higher regard then literal quadrupeds who’s entire existence is predicated on serving a purpose.” Xavier then rolled his eyes and relaxed his tone, “So I’m sorry that complying with your culture’s standard of practice on trading bits to be manually hauled across the countryside makes me feel like I am only a step or two removed from being an actual slave holder.”

“Ah yes, humanity’s grand tradition of holding others captive for labor,” Twilight barked back. “Though last I read, I thought you had civilized up a bit and finally dropped the habit 150 years ago.”

Xavier’s face shifted from exasperated to uptight as the words croaked out of him, “Coming from you, that’s calling the -” Xavier stopped himself and shook his head. Then he gave a curious hum as he slowly rotated his head around to look at Twilight, “You’ve been reading?”

“When I first caught sight of you at the bookstore, that was the very first thing I did,” Twilight answered. She narrowed her eyes on her saddlebag, packing as she shot air through her nose before continuing, “Though if it makes you feel any better, I don’t hold your kind’s failing against you.”

“Okay,” Xavier turned away and started folding the sleeping bag he had been using. “What did your studies reveal to you?”

“That your history does not differ from Gryphons, Abyssians, or Dragons. Though, at the very least, your specie’s failings have been mostly constrained towards itself,” Twilight answered, then tied her sleeping back to the rear of her saddlebag. “And you have only recently stopped using slaves.”

“Wrong,” Xavier said in a hushed tone. Twilight’s ears slowly angled toward Xavier, she could hear him inhale and exhale slowly twice before he picked back up, “… we still use slaves.”

Twilight turned to the human, his front limbs holding him up on the table in front of his backpack. He leaned over it, with only the side of his right eye and face visible.

“That’s not what my book said,” she stated.

“You said 150 years ago, right?”

“Yes?”

“Whatever it was you had read, it was probably written by one of my fellow Americans. The French outlawed slavery even earlier. And the British even earlier, with the caveat that one of its assimilated territories was exempt. But really, that’s ignoring our modern version where various countries have outlawed it on paper, but tacitly allow it,” Xavier said slowly with a glib voice.

“Wait, so the French and British a-”

“Jesus, stop focusing on the names of things and ignoring the fact that I just said slavery is still a thing, for fuck’s sake…” Xavier's face twisted towards Twilight as his voice trailed off with a hiss. Xavier touched his backpack as he turned his face away at Twilight and continued, “And we have approximate forms as well. Debt slavery, wage slavery, and conscription.”

“We have conscription too,” Twilight answered, raising an eye.

Xavier shook his head, “Not like the kind we have.”

“This honestly sounds like a case of your different tribes, I mean governments utilizing-,” Twilight shook her head, her tail flickering to her right, “Okay fine, slavery is still a thing where you come from.”

Xavier nodded his head, turned away from Twilight and resumed packing, “You know, one of the things I expected when we made first contact with your world was a kind of dawning of the “Age of Aquarius” for us.”

“Age of Aquarius?” Twilight stretched each word and answered Xavier as she turned and gave him a strange eye. Her ears faced him, standing at attention while her eyes looked exhausted.

“Forgive me,” Xavier said. He turned to Twilight, using his arms to prop himself up against the table, now facing the opposite direction. “The usage of that was tongue in cheek for me, but I’ll elaborate. The Age of Aquarius is a cultural artifact that comes from about 50ish years ago where there was a segment of our population that believed the dawn of a new age will allow humanity as a whole to enter into an age of enlightenment.” Xavier paused, and looked at Twilight, whose ears seemed even higher than before, were forward and focused on him. “I was hoping that when we discover that we were not alone, that we would move past this stage of self exploitation and enter into a true age of enlightenment.” Xavier stopped, looked down, and exhaled. “And I was wrong. Horribly wrong.”

Xavier sat on the wooden bench while Twilight talked to the large brown Earth mare who ran the caravan. The road was compressed dirt with plenty of hoof printings marking up and down the street. And around it, a large circle of wagons with ponies of every color talking and taking on goods. A grey pegasi with blond mane swooped in to drop sacks of mail off for letters taking the cheapest trips to their destinations. Three unicorns of different colors were working in concert to lift a box labeled ‘fragile’ into a wagon that was slightly lifted by metal springs. Each point of contact glowed as the unicorns gently lifted the cargo and placed it in the wagon. Only a second later, a blue griffin with a wild eye then appeared from the back to secure the cargo with leather straps using his claws.

“75 bits,” the brown Earth mare said, chewing on a single long blade of grass, standing over Twilight. The wind wound around and around and shook the trees, kicking up dust around the caravan she represented. Twilight’s nose wiggled as a bit of dust caught in her nostrils. Blinking for a moment, she looked up at the mare and began.

“That’s ridiculous! You’re just taking us 100 km up the road!” Twilight nipped out as her ears folded back ever so slightly.

“You got any useful magic?” a gray earth stallion said, approaching the mare by the side. He was a head taller than the brown Earth mare in front of Twilight. He gave the mare a gentle nudge and settled to the side of the brown mare while she turned to him and gave a tender nod.

“I,” Twilight let out a laugh. “I have a condition, I can’t really cast magic.”

“Well, that’ll be 75 bits, tri-tone,” the brown mare turned back and reiterated. “Now, I can shave off nine bits if y’all ain’t interested in any meals from us, but you’ll still have to keep watch at night. And if you’re not here come departure time, we’ll be hittin’ the road without you.”

“My partner…” Twilight trailed off. She turned to see her stallion-human hadn’t left his seat, then turned back, “He’s human, is that going to be an issue?”

The brown mare kept chewing the single long grass as she said, “Well, that ain’t no problem at all, ma’am. We got another fella of them tree climber’s with us, y’see. Can’t rightly say if we’ll be takin’ him with us, though - he’s got a mighty big herd to take care of. But just so y’all know, we ain’t takin’ him or your stallion no further than Dragon’s Tail.”

“Kingdom territory…”

“Mmm-hmmm. If y’all’s stallion wants to get themselves killed, it will be on their own neck,” the brown mare nodded, glancing over at the gray stallion to her side. He gave her a gentle tap on the neck with his snout and she replied with a nudge of her own.

“Give me a few moments,” Twilight said as she turned and walked back over to Xavier. Her Ritter sat atop the bench, throwing pebbles at the ground as Twilight approached.

“That’s steep,” Xavier said.

“Listen, I know it sounds expensive but,” Twilight trailed off.

“Why don’t we just hit the road ourselves? I’m not sure the exchange for 12 days of not having to walk is worth it,” Xavier said, putting his arms together.

“Well, it’s not just that, we only have to take about an hour watched each. And it’s early in the night, so will be fully rested by the time we wake up,” Twilight said, turning her head and shifting her mane “There’s also the consideration that they are effectively protecting us from anything that might choose to give us trouble in the forest.”

“You mean like a giant bear or chimera?”

Twilight nodded, “Exactly. If one of my friends were here, I’d have full faith in her handling those beasts. But, given our situation, I would argue, let’s not tempt fate.”

Xavier got off the bench and knelt down, grabbing a stick from the side of the road. Twilight watched as he circled a bubble in the dirt and extended lines out from it, then wrote a little + and - atop the lines, it each of those lines led to a bubble with a number in it.

“What are the chances that we will encounter something we can handle? Creature wise, that is,” Xavier asked Twilight.

Twilight blinked, then shook her head, looking up, “Well… Every time I got into a forest, well….” She teetered off for a few moments before continuing, “During and at one time in Everfree, we just hit creature after creature. The other time, when I went to go see Zecora, it was the plant life that was the culprit…”

Xavier dropped the stick and looked dumbfounded at Twilight, “What did you say?”

“Plant life?”

“Before that.”

“Zecora?”

“You met Zecora?”

“… Yes?” Twilight looked at Xavier.

“Was she teaching you?” Xavier immediately asked. He stood stiff, like a tree resisting the breeze.

“Well, not much. Everything she knew was heretical…”

Xavier threw his hands in the air and rolled his eyes, “Of course, of course. You need one of the few Masters of Potion Making and the natural world and your first knee-jerk reaction is to burn her at the stake.”

Twilight took a step back and stamp her hoof on the ground, followed by a flick of her tail, “That is not what I did! Yes, she was much like your kind in that the magics she wielded were forbidden, but…” Twilight turned toward the forest. Its trees gently swayed as she let out an exhale. “What she knew was far more than just…”

“Can I assume that you just reported her?”

“Okay, first off, I didn’t report anyone! Second off, she helped far more than she could have despite her vocation.” Twilight flicked her tail and took a step forward, “I tried to get her to stop, she refused. Then she saved us, so…” Twilight once again looked out of the forest. “I stayed quiet. At the very least, she knew a lot of things I didn’t. And she wasn’t hurting anyone, so… I stayed quiet.”

Xavier interrupted, “What’s this? Flexibility? Nuance? From you?”

Twilight lowered her head and eyes, then raised it and gave a strained look at Xavier as her ears folded back, “I don’t understand this need of yours to mock me. But suffice it to say I do have the capacity to let things go, despite the fact that I really should have reported her.”

“Just answer me this, were you keeping her out of trouble in exchange for staying in her good graces? Or because she would’ve been a useful tool in the future?”

Twilight turned and snorted at Xavier, and walked away, “Why are you accusing me of making some sort of power play?”

Xavier let out a stressed hum before answering, “I was curious to know if being subsumed in Canterlot’s core had given you a warped view on others.”

Twilight turned, “Are you accusing me of some kind of dissociation with the rest of the world?”

“Well, you did walk around trying to ensnare someone in your song,” Xavier answered.

“Listen to me, you miserable man,” Twilight said, hissing under her breath and thrusting her hoof at Xavier. “If it was good enough for my brother, it’s good enough for you!”

Xavier took a step back, “What do you mean?”

“My brother was lucky enough to be enraptured in heart song with a good friend of ours. So it was good enough for him, it’s good enough for you. And you should count your lucky stars that you didn’t get anyone else.”

“Lucky stars is relative,” Xavier answered. “And besides, you’re basing my frame of reference all on your brother being excited about getting a fuck buddy?” Xavier asked. “He may like being called Ritter and herd mate, but I find it incredibly,” Xavier turned away. “Offputting.”

“Look,” Twilight said as one group of pegasi had just lept into the air, gaining altitude while another group with a griffin in the center were in quiet commotion, their feathers ruffled “How about I make you a deal. If others ask, I’ll just say that you paid me to show you around Equus. In exchange, you stop being so fussy. Let me handle the front, just don’t embarrass me like you did at the inn. That said, there will be times I am going to need to refer to you as my herd mate. It makes explaining things simpler and explains things faster then you just hiring me to do a job.”

“But you’re still going to refer to me as a Ritter in private?” Xavier asked.

“We may be pretending to be strangers or a functional herd, but I called, and you answered. This is who we are now. Others… Others don’t have to know.”

Xavier flinched as he saw a pained expression sweep over Twilight’s face. She turned away and watched three Earth ponies resting together in the shade, the two mares chatting while leaning against their stallion. Then Twilight turned back to Xavier with a dower expression, “I know that’s not who we are, but like I said, I can’t fight you, Xavier. I can’t fight you all the way there.”

Xavier frowned, and he extended his left arm to Twilight, only to pull back. He glanced down and a hard look took over his face.

“Be honest,” Xavier said gently. “Were you expecting a much more compliant partner?”

Twilight stared at the ground and softly kicked a pebble in front of her, “I think that I was expecting another pony.”

“Can you explain why you didn’t think you could get something else?” Xavier said quietly, tilting his head with his eyes softening.

“I think I let my status as the Element of Magic get to me,” Twilight said. “Despite what the common pony thinks, there are things even outside of Celestia’s control. Heartsong is one of them, and I think that one of the things that I forget is the reason unicorn magic is the only sanctioned magic is that it doesn’t backfire,” Twilight looked up at Xavier.

“Twilight, answer me this. Can I assume that there are no do overs for you?”

Twilight shook her head, “There are rare situations where Heartsong enraptures more than two ponies, but it’s almost always at the same time that the singer first sings. It’s been a week since I first sang, and I don’t think that I’ll get any kind of mulligans or do overs.”

“For that, I’m…” Xavier lifted his head and looked past the tree line. “Sorry.”

Both Twilight and Xavier said nothing. A gentle breeze heralding summer’s end blanketed them both with chill air. Celestia’s sun was obscured by high clouds, while the sounds of the hustle and bustle behind Twilight became quiet. The odor of burning wood finally seeped into the lot from nearby bakeries.

“Look on the bright side,” Twilight laughed to herself. “At least that pain that you were feeling finally went away. I still don’t know how your suffering associates with my singing, but…” Twilight trailed off. “At least one good thing has come out of this.”

The wagons loaded up with passengers a little past noon. Of the five carts, each of them was pulled by two earth ponies. Twilight and Xavier got in on the fourth wagon to the rear, right next to the herd of two mares and a Griffin. The two remained silent as the other guests delt with each other.

“I cannot subsist off of fish,” the Griffin said. “During the war, for months on end, it was nothing but fish, fish, fish.”

“No,” the unicorn said. “I refuse to have any kind of meat beyond that in the house.”

“Then why the rut did you ask me to join you and your herd?” the Griffin snapped. “I can only have bread in small quantities, and besides, I haven’t had a good pulled pork in ages.”

The earth mare stuck out her tongue, “Please don’t talk about that, it makes me feel sick.”

“Then just build me a kitchen outside the house!” the Griffin said. “You don’t even need to make me a stove, as long as I get some kind of campfire working outside, I can at least cook whatever we get.”

The earth mare looked over to her herd mate, “It’s not a bad idea”

“But what will the neighbors think?” The unicorn asked snappily.

“I’ll tell you what they’ll think,” the Griffin said, clicking his beak. “They’re going to ask why I’m so malnourished. Then you’ll have a real problem.”

The unicorn hopped up as she raised her horn to the sky and a slight glow from it came forth, then it ceased as the unicorn turned away.

“That’s what I thought. And why did you bring me in anyways?” the Griffin snapped. "You can’t pretend like I’m one of those humans by throwing bread at me and expecting me to eat it. I need to eat meat!”

“I just didn’t want foals,” the unicorn shot. “Dreadful little things.”

“And there it is!” The earth mare said. “You said adoption was on the table when you asked me to join, but when I get in, ‘Sorry, we just can’t do that right now!’. I swear, I have no clue why we’re even here anymore.”

“I can tell you why he’s here,” the unicorn turned to the earth mare. “He couldn’t make it in his homeland so now he’s giving us a go!”

“You said you would tell no one!” the Griffin screamed.

The mare strapped into the cart turned and bellowed at the three passengers, “No refunds!”

“That’s fine, I didn’t want to stay anyways,” the Griffin said as he spread his wings and made a quick flap, thrusting himself off the wagon and onto solid ground. He then dusted his other front leg off and walked away.

The mare unicorn jumped up and rushed after the Griffin, “Hey, come on! I know I said…” The two walked off as the earth mare just rolled her eyes and picked herself up, trotting out of the wagon and walking the other direction.

Twilight and Xavier gave each other a nervous glance, but remained quiet. As the three ex-herd members left out of earshot, both let out a sigh and turned away.

“There’s always one,” the mare said. She turned to her pulling partner, and gave her a quick nod. The other mare retreated from her stiff, vanilla pulling collar and pulled some straps off her with her teeth. Then she quickly trotted over to the caravan leader and said, “One party of three ditched.”

“Well, I reckon it’s that other human’s lucky day.…” the mare said, grunting. “Spectrum! We gots space if you got bits!”

A human surrounded by three mares, two unicorns and a pegasus, all perked up. The unicorns and human nodded at the Pegasus, who flapped her wings 4 times and dropped in front of the earth mare. Her two toned green and black mane fell on either said of her head as her light blue body hovered above the caravan mare. A small bag was affixed around her neck.

“You got space?” the pegasus said.

“You got bits Spectrum?” the earth mare eyed?

“Right here,” Spectrum said, digging into her chest pack and pulling out coins.

The earth mare let the Pegasus lay them out one by one, before deftly using her front leg to push the coins into a basket nearby with her hoof, “Alright now, listen up. For that much bread, we’ll take y’all to Richton Ravine. Since y’all gots the only pegasus here and we just lost our griffin, we need ya to fly high up in the sky and check out the forest every 20 minutes. If ya do that for us, we’ll knock off 10 bits from the price and give y’all free grub. Just keep in mind, if y’all ain’t back by the end of the rest stop, we ain’t waitin’ around, we’re headin’ out. Y’all got it?”

Spectrum nodded, “We won’t need to sleep in the wagons, my herd mate knows how to build a quick shelter.”

“Well, ain’t that somethin’,” the Earth mare said with a tinge of sarcasm, then turned to her grey stallion who was watching, then turned back to Spectrum. “Maybe when they’re not playin’ with sticks and stones and all them fancy horns on their heads, they can bless us with an alarm spell. That way, when y’all are playin’ ‘hide the alien’ at night, the rest of us can sleep soundly knowin’ we’ll wake up in the mornin’. ‘Cause the only other unicorn we got is about as useless as the dog shit I stepped in this mornin’.”

The Pegasus cocked her head as a slight, bare, confused smile emanated from her snout as she nodded. She then took three steps back from the earth mare, who was still pounding her with her eyes. She turned, and another few flaps of her wings and she was back with her herd.

“‘Hide the alien’?” Xavier quietly muttered.

“Sex,” Twilight rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I got that part,” Xavier hissed at the mare next to him. “I just never heard of ponies refer to my kind that way.”

“Oh, is that an issue?” Twilight mumbled.

“No,” Xavier said. Xavier eyed the group as they got up and meandered over to the wagon both he and Twilight were in, “It looks like they’re coming this way.”

“Well, did you expect to get the cart all to ourselves?” Twilight asked.

“No, they’re just so,” Xavier’s face wrinkled up. He watched the four giggling and laughing about, the one human being orbited by three mares with smiles on their faces, “Bubbly.”

“They’re probably a new herd,” Twilight said, watching as the ponies and human stopped for a second to laugh at a joke the pegasus said. “Everyone seems to be in that happy jostle before everyone’s place is set in.”

“Pegasus is lead, it looks like, look at how he fawns over her the most,” Xavier said.

Twilight frowned, “You can’t determine who is lead mare from that. If she has social anxiety, he might be tacitly rewarding her with attention to encourage her to do it again next time.”

“Or she has no compunction on having her tongue halfway down his throat in front of the others,” Xavier said. The man cupped Spectrum and midair as their lips touched.

Twilight lowered her eyes and shifted them towards Xavier, “Public displays of affection are the norm here.”

“If you call that affection, he might as well take his pants off and get in the thick of it because he’s already deep inside her,” Xavier mumbled, turning away.

“If you’re jealous, I offered you the opportunity two days ago despite your problem with my species,” Twilight blew her bangs up.

“Oh please,” Xavier rolled his eyes. “You’re not going to convince me that you get wet at the thought of a human.”

Twilight turned slowly to Xavier, “Excuse me, but I’m not as narrowminded as you are.”

“This isn’t about being narrow minded or not,” Xavier said, crossing his arms. “Ask anyone from my side if having sex with any species over here comes natural to them and I promise you, the answer is no.”

“Well, from the looks of it, your compatriot over there got over it,” Twilight said, turning her head again. The two herdmates were finally detached from each other and the entire herd was slowly moving towards the wagon again. “I hope you enjoy the company of your own kind.”

“Please don’t tell me they’re coming over,” Xavier said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Well, what did you expect? You already saw them head over and we got seats,” Twilight huffed.

“I expected to enjoy the ride in peace, not listen to the sounds of four xenophiliacs going to town among the cargo,” Xavier grumbled.

“Oh Celestia’s light, Xavier it’s natural!” Twilight hissed. “Tell me, are you a prude because he’s the anomaly, or are you the aberration?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Xavier grunted. “I don’t have a problem with sex.”

“Yes you do,” Twilight said.

“Quiet, they’re almos- “

“See?” Twilight twisted her focus on Xavier. She caught his eyes as she narrowed hers, “You can barely talk to me about it, and when others are in earshot, you’re trying to hide it like dust under a rug. Sex is perfectly natural, without it, how are we supposed to repopulate?”

“In private, behind closed doors,” Xavier blew air out his lips. “If this is your way to try and get me to warm up to helping you with your monthly thing, forget it.”

“Say it,” Twilight commanded.

“Say what?”

“Estrus. Say it,” Twilight shot Xavier a serious look.

“No! The last time I discussed it, you rage quit the conversation on me,” Xavier answered.

“I did not ‘rage quit’. I left you to stew in your own garbage because you were telling me how I was going to deal with MY estrus cycle like you knew better,” Twilight spat out. “Would you like me to give you a lesson on a mare’s estrus cycle so in the future, you know exactly what is going on? Would you like me to explain in detail exactly what happens to me?”

“How about we don’t and just say we did,” Xavier closed his eyes and bent over.

“If we’re going to live with each other, you need to know these things, and how I in particular go through it,” Twilight said, turning away slightly.

“Are you still operating under the delusion that at the end of this, you and I are just going to buy a condo in San Franciscolt, grab two others and just live with them?” Xavier nearly cried out.

“If you really don’t want to live with others, I…” Twilight stumbled over her words for a moment. “That’s effectively a marriage, and I’m not arrogant enough to pretend to be a princess.”

“Well excuse me princess,” Xavier rolled his eyes at Twilight. “What you’ve pulled was effectively droit du la princesse on my ass using a literal song as precedence.”

“Are you accusing me of colt napping?” Twilight narrowed her eyes and growled.

“You talk about how I have no right to dictate how you’re going to handle your bodily functions, and here you are, dictating to me that as soon as this is all over, you’re going to drag me to a cave to live with you,” Xavier locked eyes with Twilight.

“You speak like I had a choi-”

“Of course you had a choice! You were the only one who had a choice! You could have chosen to stay quiet!” Xavier threw up his arms.

“Hey is everything okay over here?” a voice shot up from the end of the wagon. Spectrum hovered in air as the human and two unicorns behind her just stared on.

“Of course!” Twilight gleefully said, shooting her eyes at Xavier then turning back at the herd. “We’re just debating the merits of choosing our herd mates rather than going through a matching service.”

“Oh, well,” the Pegasus fluttered over and landed across from Twilight. “My name is Spectrum Arc, this is Henry, Mystic Mirage and Emerald Symphony.”

Henry helped the two Unicorns in and picked himself up as the group settled across from Twilight and Xavier.

“Wow, it’s nice seeing another human here!” Henry extended his hand towards Xavier, who nodded and shook the hand weakly. “Fall in love with the inhabitants of this world too?”

Xavier narrowed his eyes at Henry and looked away, letting out an exhausted grunt.

“Wow, a Unicorn? I got two in my own as well,” Henry said, giving a bow towards Twilight, who returned the gesture. “And you are?”

“Dusk Nightlight,” Twilight said.

“That’s so neat! So you’re the other unicorn our trip leader was talking about? Is your inability to cast magic due to that weird bump at the base of your h-”

“Yes, yes,” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Macgregors whatever.”

“O… kay?” Henry frowned as he sat next to Spectral Arc and Emerald Symphony.

Mystic Mirage cracked a smile and spoke up, “So, what’s up north for you two? My mother has some land she is letting us use to build our home.”

“A scaple to extricate this mare from my ass,” Xavier mumbled almost incoherently.

Twilight’s eyes expanded wide, then turned themselves at Xavier, giving him the look of pure rancor.

“What did you say? I didn’t catch that?” Mystic said.

“I said a sheet of paper to export Mist Care’s formulas,” Xavier said, stumbling over his word.

“Mist Care?” Emerald asked.

“Haha, she is an old friend of mine,” Twilight turned to Xavier and hissed, “Right?”

“Oh, you know it,” Xavier twisted his head away from the group.

Silence blanketed the 6 as two of the caravan Earth Ponies approached the wagon. Checking the mares that had already hitched themselves on, they let out a cry to the wagon six carts ahead and started the venture.

“Hey, blue stuff!” the left Earth Pony pulling the wagon cried out. “Blue stuff!!”

“Me?” Spectrum Arc said.

“Yes you, courtesy check please.”

“Oh, yes!” she said, looking up at the sky. Her wings expanded, her full plumage extended as she flapped once, then twice, then three times, lifting off. Taking off, she circled around the caravan three times before ascending. Soon she became a spec in the sky, then as quickly as she rose, she fell fast. Six wagons ahead, she stopped for a few seconds, then flapped over to the next one behind and so forth until finally, she arrived at the cart she started at, “Everything looks good except for some smoke from the southeast. No monsters as far as I could see.”

“Thank you, took you long enough,” the wagon pony said to Spectrum as she fluttered back to her seat.

“Smoke?” Xavier said.

“Smoke. Problem?” Spectrum said.

Xavier remained silent, only for Twilight to speak up, “I’ve seen that style of take off before, did you serve with the Wonderbolts?”

Spectrum gave a sly grin, then glanced away, “War ended while I was at hoofcamp. Complete waste of time.”

“I don’t think it was a waste of time,” Henry said, wrapping his arms around the Pegasus and pulling her close. “And look on the bright side, you still did your duty.”

“Blah,” Spectrum stuck her tongue out.

Suddenly, a sound from the front of the caravan echoed out, an almost high-pitched grunting, followed by that exact same sound from the wagon right behind it. It traveled down the caravan until the carts that Twilight and Xavier were sitting on wiggled for a moment, then the left Earth mare harnessed to the wagon bellowed out the same thing. The wagon behind them followed suit, and the wagon behind it. And with that, the caravan moved, the creaking sound of wood cried out as the wagon train began its slow crawl up north.

“So slow…” Spectrum said.

“Give them time,” Twilight said. “It might not be a train, but when things get up to speed, it will just be like walking to them.”

“That famous earth pony strength and endurance…” Mystic said. “I’m just thankful that I can rest through most of the trip.”

“Well,” Spectrum said, “It’s a good thing we can rest now, because tonight…” Spectrum stared at Henry as he looked back at her. Mystic gave out a laugh as Symphony also looked at Henry, but then turned away with a slight frown as he didn’t return the gesture.

“So, how did you all meet?” Twilight asked, quickly glancing at Xavier who had his eyes shut.

“I found him in the woods,” Spectrum blurted out.

“Hey! You didn’t find me out in the woods,” Henry retorted. “I just got a little lost.”

“A little lost? No, no, no. You were out there, remind me what you are looking for again?” Spectrum playfully jested.

“Mushrooms…” Henry said, rolling his eyes.

“Mushrooms. And for what reason again?” Spectrum jiggled her eyebrows up and down.

“Hey! Just because some mushrooms can induce hallucinations doesn’t mean that’s what I wanted. I’ll have you know that there are plenty of people who eat mushrooms for their own sake,” Henry turned away.

“Oh yes,” Mystic said, sticking her tongue out. “And when was the last time I saw you cook with mushrooms?”

“Hey now, that’s two on one, Symphony. Back me up!” Henry laughed, then threw Symphony a gaze.

“Oh, oh yes, I’ve seen him cook with mushrooms,” Symphony smiled at Henry.

“See!” Henry said.

“Well, if that’s the case, do you grow mushrooms back on the other side?” Spectrum said, getting close to Henry.

“Well, only one kind,” Henry said, smiling and looking away playfully.

“Then I guess you have to show me tonight what kind of mushrooms you keep on you,” Spectrum said, getting close to Henry’s face as the canon of her front leg pressed against her stallion’s crotch.

“Well, I don’t keep any on me, but I think I can grow one in a few seconds time…” Henry said before getting Spectrum a peck on the lips.

Twilight watched as Henry and Spectrum’s head tapped against each other, both their eyes closed and Henry’s hand lightly brushing through Spectrum’s mane. Mystic watched with delight, while Symphony looked on, then looked away with the slight frown decorating her face.

Then Twilight looked to Xavier, whose eyes were closed, having checked out and fallen asleep.