Dreamwalker's Tale: An Anthology

Another night’s shift came to an end. “It becomes easier with practice,” Luna promised with a thin smile.

I knew I looked exhausted, because I felt exhausted and right now, I did not have the will to keep that from reflecting on my current body. “I know, I know,” I replied with a little, defeated sigh.

“Do not be glum, Dreamwalker. We are only at the beginning of our teachings. You will improve considerably before you know it,” she insisted. I had no strength to disagree, so I just nodded. “Farewell and Good Morning’s Blessings upon thee.”

I stepped up to her and hugged her. With one foreleg around me, she reciprocated and squeezed me a little bit. “I wish you a good morning as well, Luna.”

And with that, I woke up.

The transition sometimes felt awkward. On rare occasions, I had to battle small doses of vertigo or disorientation. Most of the time I just opened my eyes and it felt like waking up and everything was fine. Today was one of those rare occasions, however, and I felt like falling, until I hit the ground – which turned out to be my bed. I fell right into my body, without being able to tell as much, considering I had no real sense of sight. I just knew.

“Ugh,” I quietly sighed.

Part of the disorientation was the need to remember. What happened last night, where I was, what time it was, simple things like that. But I was not granted enough time to get my bearings. Her muzzle closed in on me. She lovingly nuzzled my mane and I felt safe and secure.

Twilight’s wing was still draped over me. Sometime throughout the night, I had buried my own muzzle in her chest’s fur. Her smell was delightful. Relaxing. She smelled like home. I brushed against her, inhaled more of it and enjoyed it, until she spoke up.

“Feeling better?” she asked. Her voice was quiet, barely audible. But in an otherwise silent room, nothing more was required.

I thought about last night again and a smile crept up on me. “Lots,” I let her know. “Thank you.” I nuzzled her back and after some careful consideration, finally raised my head enough to look her in the eyes. It also meant seeing the state of the day. Sunlight filtered in through the small gap in the curtain, drenching the entire room in a pleasant twilight. I properly laid my head down on the pillow next to her. We smiled at each other. “I tried to win. That was a grave mistake. You don’t try to win against Pinkie.”

Her smile grew into a small grin, but she remained silent. There was no need for words. We shared a very pleasant moment neither of us wanted to disrupt.

Since my training as a guard had started, I came to appreciate the weekends. In those first few weeks, I had little reason to care about what day it actually was. One was as good as the other, with little difference. Now, however? With the teleportation stone, I could return home every once in a while. But it was a treat, a rare one. Most days, I tried to spend the night at the barracks with the other recruits. To fit in. Make some friends. Whenever it got too much, I crawled back to the palace and used the guest room Luna had offered me. Considering how many times Twilight had fallen asleep in the Archives or her study, and adding all the times she actually went back home to spend some days with her parents, I might end up using my bed in the palace more than she did back in the days.

I noticed how I was about to drift away. My mind was wandering, aimlessly pecking at one topic or another, but I actually wanted to spend some time with Twilight. So I used a little bit of force to refocus, to concentrate on what was going on here, right now. “I love waking up next to you,” I mumbled and promptly got lost in her eyes, “Makes me feel less lost and alone.”

She lifted her wing. Just enough to bend it a little. To let her primaries trail along my side. My eyelids fluttered closed and I made no effort to keep that happy sigh in. A minute or two, I just enjoyed the intimate sensation, even grinning as I felt goosebumps crawl along my back. “I admit, I love your wings, too,” I whispered with a grin. “They feel great.”

I only opened my eyes when I heard her stifle a giggle. A faint tint in her cheeks. A smile graced her lips. “Are you going to spend the entire morning praising parts of me… again?” she asked with a teasing tone.

I considered that, taking it as a proposition. But I had plans for today. I would need to get up soon or I would be running late. Then again, from what I could tell, it was still somewhat early. “Would you like that?” I shot right back with a grin.

Her wing pulled me in, closing whatever little gap might have been between us. For something mostly consisting of feathers, it could exert a surprisingly strong grip. “I admit, it feels nice being complimented… by you especially,” she answered.

And Luna, was the heavy implication I added in my mind. I raised a hoof and placed it on her neck, slowly trailing down to her shoulder. She sighed with a satisfied smile, but never stopped letting her feathers caress me. I liked to believe that I knew her well. I most certainly knew a lot of her weak spots. And while sharing this closeness right now felt heavenly, that rarely listened to trickster part in me wanted to surprise her a little.

She gave a surprised little yelp when I started to tickle her for a moment. A bout of giggling followed suit. There was still a playful glint in her eyes once I stopped, but she primarily tried to convey her outrage right now. Without saying a word, she accused me. How could you? I trusted you! My grin widened. “You’re like a very sweet instrument. Takes a while to learn, but once you get the hang of it, you can make the most precious, most beautiful sounds…”

“Is that so?” she asked with a quiet laugh. “I am not sure if that still counts as a compliment…”

“Oh, believe me — it is,” I replied without hesitation. She smiled again and slowly brought her muzzle closer. She wanted to kiss my forehead. Just another intimate gesture. Just another expression of fondness, and love, and care. And I raised my head and met her halfway. She looked surprised. Of course she did. We were not meant to do that. But I found it hard to resist. And it felt so nice. My hoof had trailed down the side of her barrel on its own accord and a couple of seconds after our lips met, pressed down on that little spot above her dock. She pressed her eyes shut and broke the kiss for a quiet moan.

“See? Such a beautiful sound,” I whispered and tried to dive in for another kiss.

She put a hoof against my shoulder and pushed me away. Just the smallest gap, but it was more about the act itself than the actual distance. “We shouldn’t,” she reminded me.

I stopped for just a couple of seconds. Enough to break the spell, to climb out of that haze and grasp a clear thought. She was right. Of course she was right, she was Twilight Sparkle. “I know,” I sighed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to—… to rile you up like that.”

She smiled. A regretful, sad little smile. “I know. Don’t worry, nothing happened.” Nothing a cold shower or a lonely hoof could not fix later on.

I would tell Celestia anyway, of course. She deserved to know. It was the only possible way I saw. The only way she could build trust in me, and maintain it. As much honesty as possible. She knew about every stray thought, about every little misstep, about everything. I was still confused, at times, how little it seemed to bother her on most occasions. In that regard, I was a lot closer to Luna. I could understand her possessiveness and jealousy a lot better. And maybe that was the reason why we managed to get along so well.

Twilight withdrew her wing and that saddened me more than I had expected. I sighed. “I ruined it, didn’t I?”

She pondered the question for a couple of seconds before her wing actually returned, accompanied by a warm smile. “No. No, you did not.” We hugged each other.

I was just glad she was still with me. I brushed my cheek against hers and reveled in her warmth. “Thank you.” We stayed in that close embrace for another couple of minutes, maybe. But the sun was rising, the time was mercilessly trickling away and I had plans. “I should probably get up,” I remarked without all that much enthusiasm.

She smiled warmly. “You probably should,” she confirmed and made no effort to release me.

“Are you going to make me fight for it?” I asked with a smile and nuzzled her again, “Because I’m not sure if I’m willing to fight for it…”

“Hm… quite the predicament, then,” she replied with a stifled giggle.

I lazily drew little circles on her back. “I haven’t asked about your plans for the weekend yesterday. You’ll be here tonight, right?”

She squeezed me one last time before her wing retreated and she pushed us a little bit apart. “I will. Rarity wanted to come over around midday, I’m trying to teach her a new spell. And I was planning on using the afternoon and evening to research a couple of options for fine-tuning the teleportation stone.”

I nodded and finally disentangled myself enough from her to actually climb out of the bed. “I’m not sure how my day will play out. I planned on baking with Pinkie today, but my afternoon and evening are free so far. Mostly because I wasn’t sure how much time that would take. You know, the occasional, kitchen-based catastrophe and inevitable clean-up can take a couple of hours. But… I thought it might be nice if we could spend some time as well. Aside from very pleasant morning pillow talk.”

She had that goofy ‘Princess of Friendship’-smile plastered on her face when she nodded with vigor. “That sounds lovely. The ‘spending time’ part, not the clean-up. Try not to make too much of a mess, will you?”

I chuckled. “Don’t worry, I won’t allow the Cakes to drag you into this again. I am perfectly capable of cleaning up after myself.”

She raised an eyebrow at that, but had enough mercy not to comment on it. We instead just fixed the bed in no time at all, pulled the curtains apart, opened the window and left the room for our respective bathrooms.

Breakfast was a short, if pleasant affair. Spike was talking to Owlicious, which… seemed to be a rather one-sided conversation. I had more luck talking to White Tip, who at least understood what I said. Most of the time anyway. Twilight was in good spirits and I liked to believe that I may have contributed to that – which in turn meant that I was happy as well. Sometimes, a simple smile really could make an entire day.

Maybe an hour after I finally had gotten out of bed, I left the castle. The moment I closed the door and turned towards the path, I saw a gray speck drawing closer. “Good morning, Derpy!” I greeted and trotted up to her.

She smiled like seeing me was the best thing of her entire morning. And despite my knowledge that she shared that smile with every other pony as well, it still warmed my heart. We met for a quick hug. “Morning! Did you come out just to collect Twilight's mail?”

I snorted. “Ehehe, no. But she’s awake and still in there, so there’s that. Oh, hey! I’m going to bake with Pinks today. If you’re lucky and come by Sugarcube Corner later on, maybe you could get a piece or slice or whatever. I’m not entirely sure what we’re going to make yet. Your shift should be done by afternoon, right?”

The promise of sweets always worked. Especially if it was not just Sugarcube Corner’s ‘usual fare’ — which was quite delectable already —, but something more personal. Derpy was always supportive. We could have made burnt flour bricks and she would at least try to cheer us up by praising their use as a blunt weapon for self-defense or something. But with Pinkie involved, any and all such horror scenarios became a lot less likely. “I’d love to!” she almost yelled in my face before she hugged me again. “Now I have extra energy to finish my round!” And with that, she trotted past me, up to the castle’s surprisingly modest mail box, stuffed a couple of letters in there and actually extended her wings, taking flight with the second attempt and zipped away.

With that much enthusiasm… maybe she was hoping for muffins?

Then again, I had half-lied to her, had I not? Pinkie had insisted that I would be the one deciding what we would bake today. And I had decided on one thing already. Of course we would probably not spend half a day on one cake. Probably. But adding a couple of muffins to the list was easy enough to do. I knew that Pinkie could whip up some muffins in her sleep. Quite literally, actually. Sleep-baking was the weirdest thing, but quite in line with Pinkie.

My first destination was Sweet Apple Acres, though, not Sugarcube Corner. While I was trotting down the dirt path, I rummaged through my memories. Those based on flashes. A couple of days ago, I had a weird one while sitting in the cafeteria with a couple of other recruits, enjoying the break from physical training more than the food itself. But a certain smell I could not place had triggered it and reminded me of an instance of me baking with Arcana. And arguing. A lot of arguing. Because my dearest daughter had deemed it necessary to strictly stick to the recipe while I – at this point years and years older than I was right now – had learned enough from Pinkie to just wing it.

The flash was centered on the argument, but the memory was clear enough that I had actually been able to transcribe the recipe. Most of the ingredients were simple enough and would be present in Sugarcube Corner. 200 grams of butter, 200 grams of sugar, 175 grams of starch, three tablespoons of milk, ten egg whites and eight egg yolks. Nothing too fancy so far. Oh and chocolate, of course. Lots of chocolate, for the frosting.

I was not future-me just yet, and I was not about to ‘wing it’ this time. I had a recipe and I was going to use it. However, that being said: I still wanted to deviate a little bit. Mixing the batter was simple enough, and I wanted to spice that up by mixing in apple pieces. I was not sure what that would do, but I was curious enough to give it a try. Worst case scenario I could imagine: The cake did not end up as a layered cake of sorts, but instead ended up as a more homogenous mass. It should be tasty anyway and more importantly, it should not be capable of setting the kitchen on fire.

It would have been easier to go to the market stall, of course. The Apples usually had one member of the family tend to the market stall, selling their produce. But I knew that Applejack was working in the orchards today, so that duty probably fell to Big Macintosh. I had no qualms with Big Mac at all, but for some reason, I did not really connect with him either – not in the same way Spike apparently did. And I did not mind the trek out to the orchard, or the opportunity to chit chat with a friend.

I crossed the threshold of Sweet Apple Acres when I first heard their faint voices. The occasional gust of wind carried them, but I was still too far away to make out any words. The closer I drew, however, the more I became aware of who was yelling at whom.

“You come back here this instant, you gosh darn vermin! Come back or I’ll tell Granny!” Applejack yelled.

“You would snitch on me?!” a shocked Rainbow replied.

“Don’t make me do it!” AJ threatened.

And a second later, I heard a loud splosh. What were these two doing? I sped up my walking pace a little, my ears swiveling around to hone in on the direction of their voices and soon enough, I could see a multihued mane stick out of a couple of branches. Applejack noticed my approach, but did not react much to it, instead opting to stay focused on her task at hoof: Balancing a long branch in her mouth to poke at Rainbow, who, for some reason, was clinging to the tree like a cat threatened with a filled bathtub.

I silently sidled up to Applejack and watched the pair go about their… uh… courtship ritual, probably.

“You come down here right this instant, missy, or I’ll get the hose!” Applejack threatened.

“You can’t make me!” Rainbow spat right back. “The water won’t pump this far!”

“Good morning, Applejack,” I greeted her.

“Mornin’, partner,” she replied without taking her eyes off of Rainbow.

“Good morning to you as well Rainbow,” I sent up.

“Hi,” Rainbow just threw down.

“So… do I want to know what’s going on? It’s not some kinky roleplay I stumbled into, is it?” I teased.

“No,” AJ answered while somehow simultaneously growling at Rainbow, “that featherbrain hurt Antonia and I want to calmly explain to her what went wrong…!”

I furrowed my brow, nodded and took a look around while they kept hissing at each other and bickering. I could confirm my suspicion once I noticed a nearby apple tree missing a piece of its protective bark. And it was actually not that hard to put one and one together. Some stupid challenge or another, and Rainbow using way too much force when bucking the tree. Applejack could easily smash skulls to a fine paste with a single kick of her powerful hindlegs. The only reason those trees were still standing was her carefully measuring her strength and her earth pony magic. She did not want to hurt the tree, so she didn’t. Rainbow, however, was not an earth pony. When she bucked a tree full force, there was no magic diverting the excess part of the kinetic energy.

“I’m honestly just surprised that lazy slowpoke is up already, I mean, doesn’t she usually wake up like… in the middle of the day?” I mused with a wicked grin, knowing full well what was about to come next.

“Say what?!” Rainbow immediately protested and swooped down within two seconds, landing right next to Applejack.

Applejack, on the other hoof, had a prime opportunity to do… something with Rainbow. Anything. But what I had said did not sit right with her, so she turned towards me as well, with a disgruntled look on her face. “That’s uncalled for!” AJ jumped to Rainbow's totally warranted defense. “She has been up with me for hours today, and several days in the last weeks! She works her flank off to help out and she does a mighty fine job doing it! You don’t get to call her names just because of a simple mistake with a simple fix!”

I grinned a little wider and gestured between the two of them. It took them a moment to realize and stare at each other, then back to me and they both groaned in unison. “Wait,” Rainbow spoke up first, “so… simple fix? You really meant that I wasn’t in trouble?”

“Of course I meant it, you silly goose!” Applejack answered with an exasperated sigh. “That could’ve happened to anypony. I just need to show you how to avoid it.”

“Happened to me twice,” I threw in for good measure, only to belatedly add with a shrug, “I’m a slow learner sometimes.”

“But… but…” Rainbow was confused. She looked over to me as if I could explain whatever was going on in her head, then she looked to Applejack. “But you were stalking towards me! Like some predator or something!”

Applejack winced a little. “I did not.”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“Did—“

“How long have you two been doing this again?” I intervened before they could rile each other up again.

Both stopped for a moment to think before shrugging. “Couple of hours, as I said,” Applejack replied.

“Each day, every day,” Rainbow grumbled quietly. “We make breaks, sure, but those are shooort. I need naptime. But she always says ‘just one more row’ or something, and then it’s the next day!”

Ah. That again. I looked over to Applejack and raised my eyebrow in a very specific, hard to describe way that Twilight had taught me. It was a specific sign developed by her to short-circuit Applejack's usual arguments about the issue. “I might have some… minor back pains,” Applejack relented.

I gave a relieved sigh. I had not expected her to give in this quickly or easily. Rainbow, however, flared her nostrils and snorted. “I asked! You said no! You lied to me!” she accused Applejack, who at this point flinched away a little.

“I’m sorry, okay? We need to get this work done, it—“

“There’s always work!” Rainbow barged in. “And it always needs to get done! I don’t complain… too much… and I’m here, aren’t I? But you’re not much help if you ruin yourself!” Applejack mumbled something under her breath and Rainbow, who apparently had heard the comment, groaned in annoyance. “AJ, this is not a competition!” she insisted with a heavy sigh. “You could get hurt!” Both Applejack's and my eyes went wide and we stared at Rainbow. A couple of seconds later, her words registered in her own mind and her reaction was basically the same. Aside from the ‘staring at herself’-part. “Wow… I just said that, didn’t I?” Both Applejack and I nodded. “Huh.”

“Maybe you both need a break,” I suggested. “And I mean, like, a break-break. Take a day off or something. Go to the spa, get pampered. Or have a nice day in, cook together, have a picnic in the fields, just… do something else for a while.”

Applejack turned a little and rested her forehead on Rainbow's back, rubbing her face on her partner's coat while quietly groaning. “Ugh. Maybe that would be for the best.”

Rainbow's grin widened considerably as a particular thought struck her. “So… I get to have naptime?”

Applejack chuckled into her back. “I think I could actually use a nap myself.”

Rainbow was elated, to say the least. “Yessss,” she hissed.

“But we need to take a bath first,” Applejack insisted.

“Right, bath, sure. I can do that.” A multicolored blur zipped away in the direction of the farmhouse before anypony really had any chance to get another word in. Applejack, who had been leaning on Rainbow, struggled to keep her balance and might have tumbled forwards, but I charged my horn and fashioned a weak field of resistance where Rainbow should have been.

“You alright there?” I asked, stepped closer to her and looked her over. Now that I knew what to look for, it was a lot easier to spot. She was exhausted.

“I’m fine,” she sighed. “That featherbrain just left me standin' here, didn’t she?” she sighed again.

I chuckled a bit. “Well… she’s just very, uh… excited? Yeah, that's it. She’s very excited. About the prospect of taking a nap. With you. And maybe about taking a bath with you as well, I mean, who knows. Two ponies in one bath tub, that’s rather cozy… who knows what that might lead to.”

Now she chuckled herself and shook her head. “I tell you: You’re obsessed!” She straightened herself out and took a look around. “I’m going to have to leave a note for Big Mac. He’s not going to be happy about this.”

I smiled and bumped my shoulder against hers. “He’ll be fine. He wants you to be well, too, you know?”

She huffed a little, but did not object. She instead looked at me for a moment. “Say, what are you actually here for anyway? I suppose you didn’t just come by to send me to bed, did you?”

“Nope, that’s still Luna’s duty,” I remarked.

“It is?” Applejack immediately asked in surprise.

And I broke out in laughter. I tried to control myself a little, not letting it go on for too long. “No,” I finally answered. “But you’d be surprised how many ponies think that. For some reason, a lot of ponies attribute the mere act of getting sleepy and tired to her. Which is funny, in a way, seeing as her problem back then was that everypony slept through her beautiful night and disregarded it entirely. Anyway, I came here for some apples. Makes sense, right? This being an apple orchard and all that.”

She raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “Mhm, sure. And the market was obviously bought out of stock.”

I shrugged. “The market doesn’t have you.”

It was a small piece of honesty, delivered with nonchalance. Something she could appreciate. “Aw shucks, thank you kindly.”

“I originally thought that we might be able to chat for a little while,” I further explained. “but seeing as you keep softly swaying from side to side, I think you might actually need that bath and nap.”

“I am not swayin',” she insisted. While slightly swaying.

“Right. Sure.” I chuckled.

“Did not!” she insisted.

“AJ, I'm not Rainbow. I'm not even going to start that.”

We stared at each other for a moment, before she sighed. “Take some from the bushel over there if it’s the right kind. All the others are in the barn or at the market.”

I smiled and charged my horn. Two apples levitated over to my saddlebags and I took a bit out of my purse to levitate it over to her. Only then did I notice the little flaw in my plan. She had nothing to store the money. “I’m… uh… I’m going to give this to Big Mac?” I offered.

She chuckled and gave me a nod. “You do that. I have a featherbrain to catch.”

“Good luck with that.” I stepped up and hugged her. I could not help but notice the myriads of minor knots all over her neck, but I remained silent. With any luck, Rainbow would take good care of her, now that she knew what was going on.

And a few minutes later, with my massive bounty of two entire apples, I was on my way to Sugarcube Corner.

The exchange with Big Mac on the way there was unsurprisingly brief and simple. I showed him two apples, told him Applejack could not take the money at the moment and gave him the bit. For his part, the entire exchange was worth two nods and a single ‘eyupp’.

As soon as I entered Sugarcube Corner, the smell of cotton candy and cinnamon hit my nostrils. The first one was just fine, it was a bakery after all, but I really appreciated the second one. After stepping aside from the door so as to not block the entryway, I looked around. The entire room was packed, as was to be expected for a weekend day. Misses Cake delivered the orders and Mister Cake manned the counter, where a short line of customers was constantly kept moving. It was almost a work of art, seeing those two do their job, and do it so well. “Hello Misses Cake, hello Mister Cake!” I greeted them both.

Misses Cake trotted by with a tray balanced on her back and took a second to step up to me and hug me. “Hello, sweetie. Pinkie is in the kitchen, she seems very excited about your visit today,” she quietly told me. Due to the room being this full, the sheer background noise of so many customers ordering, talking, laughing and eating made it loud enough that her regular speech seemed like a faint whisper.

“Thanks! Well, I hoped she would be,” I replied with a chuckle and gave a curt nod.

While she trotted away to deliver those cupcakes on her back to the next table, I spotted Mister Cake shooting me a warm and welcoming, if somewhat strained smile. Better not to distract them too much, I told myself and walked alongside the constantly both shortening and growing line of customers, past the counter and into the kitchen. Where I found Pinkie in the middle of madness, unsurprisingly.

She zipped from counter to counter, stirred something in a bowl, added milk, stirred another bowl, added sugar, took a look at the oven, threw some eggs into the air and somehow managed to catch them, perfectly separating egg white and yolk, before pouring some thick batter into a little form.

Right in the middle of this entire dance, she shot me a wide grin and her usual “Hiya!”-greeting. Just to let me know that my arrival had not gone unnoticed. But I politely stepped to the side and watched her for a while longer. It was a sight to behold and definitely had a trancelike quality, as it was increasingly hard to look away. Her movement was fluent and smooth, every action carefully measured and preplanned. Not only did she know this place, she felt it.

I highly suspected earth pony magic being involved in all that. Special talents relating to food were quite common among earth ponies after all. But Pinkie’s talent was parties, at least according to her supple flank. Which I really should not be staring at. Which I should not be-

Right, that’s better.

I did notice her amused smirk though, which made me blush. Why, for Celestia’s sake, did she always have to notice everything? And on that note: She could be so gosh darn oblivious on other occasions. It drove me mad at times. There was a switch, not a slider. It was either on, or off, but nothing in between. I chuckled to myself as she threw another two trays into the oven. In the part of the kitchen that was closer to the entrance where I stood, a sea of perfected treats was waiting for Mister and Misses Cake to draw from.

“You got bored?” I finally asked when she put her apron aside for now.

“Weeell,” she started with a wide grin. “You were running a little late and I saw how many customers there are and I just knew that they would totally devour all of our chocolate chip muffins and our white chocolate strawberry and raspberry cupcakes and most of our cinnamon cookies, so I thought to myself: You know what, Pinkie? You’re a smart cookie! One that the Cakes would never sell! And you are fast, too.”

“And good-looking,” I threw in with a chuckle.

“Right?” she agreed with enthusiasm, wiggling her rump for emphasis, “And good-looking! Tasty looking, so to speak! And it would not take me long to make some more. And then I thought: Well, you’re still not here, and they are still there, and I am still me, so I could go make more, and then some more, and then—“

“I see,” I interrupted with another chuckle. She had walked over to me and stopped a couple of steps away. I reduced that distance to zero and hugged her. Some flour fluttered down and tickled my nose. The entire room was warm from the oven that apparently had been running ever since she had woken up this morning. And it smelled like so many different sweet treats that it was almost overwhelming. Her fluffy mane reminded me even more of cotton candy as it pressed against me as soon as she brushed her neck along mine.

“It’s nice to have you here,” she told me in a quieter, more restrained voice.

I smiled. “Tough morning?” I whispered into her sugary mane.

“Mhm,” she mumbled in return.

“Don’t worry,” I tried to ease her longing. “She’ll be back in a couple of days. And I’m pretty sure you will bake her the fanciest treat ever as a ‘welcome back but please never leave me for an entire week ever again’-treat.”

She giggled at that. “How did you guess the name?” Obviously, a short gasp followed. “You are a psychic after all!” she exclaimed.

“No, I’m still not a psychic,” I denied with a laugh. “I just… I like to believe I know you a little bit.”

“It’s the exact phrasing I used for the banner,” she insisted. "And totally what a psychic would say if he doesn't want others to know that he's a psychic!"

“Okay, maybe more than just ‘a little bit’,” I insisted. I ignored the latter part. There was no winning that.

She disentangled from our hug to intensely stare me in the eyes and after a couple of seconds sighed. “Fine. Keep your secrets. But I'm watching you, mister!” Her wide smile immediately returned when she slid up next to me and stared at the Realm of the Kitchen for a second, taking in what must be – for her – an alluring panorama. “So, wanna get started?”

I nodded. “Sure. Let me just get ready and you can pick the first thingy.” I levitated my saddlebags over into a corner, took up the second apron instead and walked over to one of the sinks to wash my hooves. Being a unicorn and walking around a lot, it was not strictly necessary for me, but the effort was made.

“Nu-uh!” Pinkie disagreed while I fastened the apron. “I told you: I am going to be your assistant today!”

“You know, about that,” I started. “Why are you so insistent on that anyway? I mean… I really don’t mind being told what to do. I’m usually a better support anyway. And this is more or less your domain. I’ve seen you work and hooo boy, it’s impressive. You know everything. Looks like it, anyway. Putting me in charge will significantly slow us down. I mean, It would do so even if I was only helping, because let’s face it, you’re just too good at this, but still… I think I just lost track.”

She giggled and walked over, bumping my shoulder with a hoof and leaving a floury white hoofprint behind. “That’s an easy question, silly! You can learn tons and tons of important stuff about somepony if you watch how they bake. Offering assistance with that does two things: It shortens those things that don’t need to be overly long to learn more, and it shows you how that pony leads. I cooked with Twilight. I originally wanted to bake with her too, but then Spike exploded the kitchen and—“

“He did what?” I interrupted with a chuckle.

“Oh, yes, flour can be nasty stuff, very temperamental,” she replied with a grin and a shrug. And somehow, a cold shudder ran down my spine. I had heard about flour explosions. Those were actually quite dangerous. But I had seen Spike this morning. He looked fine. No lasting injuries, no trauma I could notice traces of, nothing. “Don’t worry, that was a couple of months after they moved here,” Pinkie added as if she was reading my mind. Because I was the supposed psychic in the room, sure. But I was relieved to hear that this had been years ago. I could not tell with certainty why that was relieving, but hey.

So. She wanted to learn more about me. By watching me take charge and bake. I suspected that she expected something similar to Twilight in that regard. Organized and orderly bordering on the pathological and decent skills in leading. I was just slower. And less of a leader. But I could understand her approach and was getting curious about that myself now. It would be interesting, hearing what she learned about me from this little endeavor.

“Alright. Are you ready?” I asked her and she gave an eager nod. “Good. First of all, we’ll prepare the kitchen. We’ll need two working spaces with decent size. A measuring cup, a large bowl, a whisk and… oh, a knife for these two.” I levitated the two apples out of my saddlebags and over to us, so that Pinkie could take a good look at them. “Let’s start with that, shall we?”

“Yessiree!” Pinkie answered and we both got to work. Cleaning a space for us was not that hard to manage – the kitchen was a spacious area with lots of tables and Pinkie knew perfectly well where to find each and every tool. Seeing as we were on a good run already, I told her the ingredients and their exact amounts and we took a second step by measuring those and putting them aside for later use. I had wanted to show Pinkie that I was capable of separating eggs, but in hindsight, for that to happen, I probably should have told her that we need ten eggs and not list yolk and egg white separately. She just threw the entire package into the air and… did… something. The amount of motion blur involved was dizzying. Whatever exactly had happened between start and finish did not matter as much as the result that we now had everything in order, measured and waiting to be used.

“You already know what this is going to be, don’t you?” I asked just out of curiosity.

But to my surprise, Pinkie shook her head. “Nopers. There’s actually quite a lot you could make with these ingredients.”

Oh. Huh. I let my gaze drift over everything once more, but ultimately just shrugged. “Right, then let me tell you about baumkuchen. It’s a layered cake of sorts. First, we have to beat the egg white until it’s almost stiff, then carefully add the sugar. Since I saw you being a pro at this earlier, that’ll be your task. The measuring cup should do just fine for this. Meanwhile, I’m going to try to cream the butter and add a pinch of salt. Then I add two yolks, a bit of milk and a quarter of the starch. Mix it up and repeat until all the yolk, milk and starch is in there. After that, we take the whipped egg whites. A quarter of that gets mixed in with the batter to make it smoother and a little bit more liquid than it will be at that point. The rest we have to gently fold in. Should make the whole batter nice and fluffy.” Throughout my entire explanation, Pinkie had patiently waited and listened. It was actually quite nice. For some strange reason, a part of me had expected her to be more impatient than this. To move things along quicker. But she really did leave our speed of progress to me. “Alright. Let’s start with that, then.”

Pinkie was done with her task in no time at all. Which really was no surprise. “Would you mind if I whip something up on the side while you’re still busy?”

“Nah, not at all,” I replied with a smile and suddenly remembered my earlier encounter with Derpy. “Hey, speaking of which. I met Derpy this morning and she might come by after her shift is over. You don’t fancy making some muffins by any chance, do you?”

My grin only grew wider as Pinkie whistled with a smirk. “Boy, do I! One batch of muffins coming right up, got it!”

We worked in parallel in relative silence and I did not mind at all. On one hoof, it allowed me to concentrate on my task. Distractions were usually what made me screw up. On the other hoof, while I loved talking with Pinkie, I also cherished those quieter moments we shared every now and then, where co-existing in close proximity was just enough. With another little step done, we would occasionally look up. Look where the other was, what the other was doing. And twice throughout that, our eyes met and we grinned like a mixture between busy bees and a pair of overjoyed foals.

“Done!” we both yelled in unison and broke down giggling.

Since I had focused on my task, I had not noticed how much Pinkie had actually done in that time alone. It was hard to gauge, seeing as Mister and Misses Cake occasionally came in to take another tray outside. An empty space, however, was filled with another new batch of treats in no time. I gave up on trying and just shrugged. Pinkie was Pinkie and Pinkie was a kitchen devil. That was quite alright with me.

I presented the large bowl to her, with the creamy, beige batter inside. Little pieces of apple were visible here and there. “The next part is the really time-consuming and annoying one. We take a ladle and put one layer into the cake-pan. It shouldn’t be higher than a quarter of an inch. The oven is already preheated at 430 degrees Fahrenheit, so that should be fine. It goes in for, like, three to five minutes. Once it comes out, we add a new layer. Rinse and repeat until the bowl is empty. Usually it takes me around an hour or so.”

Pinkie nodded with a smile. “That gives us some time to recklessly gossip! And you can help me decorate my muffin.”

“Sure, I’d like to decorate your muffin.” There was a groaning silence for about five seconds before I registered what I had said and we both laughed uproariously. “Riiight. Anyway, let’s get started. You got the timer?”

“Sure do!” she said, pulling something out of her mane and setting it on the table.

Over the course of the next couple of minutes – and layers – we decorated a bunch of her most recent work and had quite a giggle here and there, drawing smiley faces with frosting or writing little messages to the paying customers. Pinkie wrote “I like your mane! You should wear it more often like that!” on a muffin. That might not look like much, but to be written on a muffin and for it to still be readable was physically impossible.

So right on brand for Pinkie then.

That actually gave me an idea though. “Say, do you mind if I ask a weird question?”

“Only if I can ask one in return,” she replied with a grin.

“Yeah, sure. You can always ask me anything anyway, you know that,” I said and immediately knew the mistake I had made. Not because the floodgates would open and thousands of questions would pour out in a constant stream, drowning me right here and now, no. She just needed to slowly raise a single eyebrow just a little bit, while her smile grew a little bit wider. I had said that to her, while I was asking for her permission to ask myself. I raised a hoof before she said anything. “Fine, fine, point taken!”

She grinned and hugged me. “I’m getting better at this whole ‘talk without talking’-thing! Fluttershy will be so proud of me!”

We both giggled. “Most likely, yes,” I agreed. After calming down a little, I refocused on some recent memories. I had seen Pinkie use her tail as a fifth leg to keep balance. I had seen her use her mane to hold the whisk and whip the egg whites. I had seen her bounce several feet into the air as if her legs contained coil springs instead of bones. And it all brought me back to a theory of mine. However, I was decently sure that Pinkie either did not know the answer herself or would not want to answer me. And I did not want to make her feel uncomfortable or put her in a tough spot. “So, you gals had your fair share of villains to defeat over the past years. Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek… heh… has anyone ever noticed that we have a king, a queen and a couple of princesses, but ‘lord’ is technically a lower title than—… doesn’t matter, I’m getting sidetracked. What I wanted to ask is this: Have you ever heard of Discord?”

Pinkie leaned against a counter, produced a hat from her mane to pull halfway down her face and ‘smoked’ a chocolate stick while somehow puffing little rings of smoke out. “Oh, sure we’ve heard of discord. We don’t like such things ‘round these parts, fella.”

While I chuckled heartily due to the show she put on for me, I did notice her mane wobble slightly as I mentioned that name. “Right, sure, I noticed. But you see, it’s not just that. Discord is a person.”

Pinkie ate the stick and let her mane devour the hat again. “He is?”

I grinned a little wider. Hadn’t told you that he’s a ‘he’, Pinks… Admittedly, the name had certain gender implications. But still. “So you’ve never heard of him. None of you ever encountered him? I was just wondering, because I have a lot of memories from a lot of cycles and some things get changed each and every time, but they are usually minor discrepancies. The complete absence of a major obstacle is… strange? Then again, he is the physical embodiment of chaos, so there’s that.”

Pinkie smiled and shrugged. “Nope, sorry, never seen the guy.”

But have you heard of him, or encountered him? Maybe I was just being paranoid again. I knew Pinkie. She was unpredictable, true, but she never had any affinity for manipulation and subterfuge. I had a hard time imagining that she intentionally avoided my questions. Whatever the case might be, one thing I deemed certain: Pinkie would never do anything that would put her friends in danger. And since the entire populace of Ponyville counted towards that circle, I had nothing to worry about. “So, what’s your question?”

“Hm? Oh, right. Can we use that name?” she asked and confused me to no end.

“Wait, what?” Eloquence. “Who’s ‘we’? And what name? Discord?” Her tail waggled a little. Probably some sign for her Pinkie Sense, I tried to tell myself. Then again, Twilight never found out how that worked or what it actually was, did she? Bad Dreamwalker! Stop! Down that path lies only madness.

Pinkie stepped closer to me and put a hoof on my shoulder. The simple gesture was enough to rip me free from my darkening thoughts. I looked into her eyes and only saw honest worry and concern, love, care, and loads of sugary sweet warmth. “Are you alright?” she asked in a quiet voice.

I sighed. “Sorry. I’m fine, really. Nothing to worry about. Still, I don’t quite understand what you’re asking.”

She kept staring at me for a moment longer until she seemed satisfied and nodded. A second later, she perked right back up, hugged me and we applied another layer to the cake before she leaned against the counter again. “Well, I know it’s really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, reeeaaally early for that. But I was thinking, at some point, Twilight can cast that ‘you’re a stallion now!’-spell on Flutters or me. Oh I hope she casts it on Flutters! She’d be adorable! And then we could… ehrm… and we would… ehehehe…”

It felt somewhat strange, seeing Pinkie blush furiously. She usually was not this coy. But then again, maybe it was due to the Cakes coming in occasionally? Or maybe because Fluttershy was different for her. Either way, at least I now knew which name she was talking about.

Which immediately threw me into my next predicament.

Maybe it had been a mistake to tell them about their alternate versions. Different lives were probably different lives for a reason and the knowledge alone might have tainted thoughts of those ponies near and dear to me already.

“But ‘Whisper’ was the name chosen by a very different Fluttershy and a very different Pinkie Pie,” I objected. “Are you really sure that is what you want to go with? Just imitating somepony else?”

However, Pinkie could be quite persistent if she wanted to. “It’s not ‘imitating’, silly,” she replied and poked my shoulder with a hoof, “It’s another Flutters. And another Pinkie. And I trust myself. And it’s a really pretty name. And it fits so well with a foal we would make. And they had so much time to think of a name and they came up with this one. Maybe it’s not fair to take a shortcut. And I’m not even saying that we will. I just want to put it on the list of potential candidates. The not very long list. Where I want to put it right up at the top.”

She grinned and I sighed. For better or worse, she did seem quite smitten with the name. For now anyway. Her relationship with Fluttershy was a couple of weeks old. Not old enough to seriously consider foals by a long shot. Then again, I had seen the PPPPC - Pinkie Pie’s Party Planning Cave. I knew that she liked to be prepared and organized, despite what it might look like on a surface level. If I would allow for it, it would be noted down somewhere and it would resurface the day the discussion actually came up, whenever that might be.

But there was another point to be considered: Did I even have any right to deny her the request?

True enough, she would never have learned from different cycles were it not for me telling her. But Whisper, as a name for her daughter, was so common. So widespread. A part of me dared to ask: What if that was my fault? What if this, right here, had repeated over and over and over again? To the point that one Pinkie and one Fluttershy once thought of that name, and I was the one falling in love with it and spreading it around like butter on toast.

If, however, that fear would prove unfounded, then it would be most likely that, given how widespread the name appeared to be, they would have come up with it eventually. All on their own. In that case, it would just be what Pinkie had said: A shortcut.

But shortcuts were not necessarily a good thing.

They were not necessarily bad either.

I groaned. “I don’t know,” I sighed. “I don’t feel like I have any right to refuse. Because it was, at some point, originally your idea. Or an idea one of your incarnations had. But then you ask me for permission, and thereby, you give me the right to refuse, and that confuses the heck out of me and I don’t know.”

“I really like that name,” Pinkie quietly said.

It was that tone of voice that made me look up. Look at her and see that shimmer of silent hope in her eyes. And I realized that she was asking less for my permission and more for my blessing, in a way. Which did not make any of this any less confusing, to be honest. But it did warm my heart a little. And made the mere thought of refusing her appear utterly absurd.

So I stepped up to her and hugged her tight. “Of course you can. If you really want to — and if Fluttershy agrees — and if you actually remember the day this becomes relevant… you may.”

“Pffft, have you seen my PPPPC?” Pinkie asked with a quiet giggle.

I smiled. “I have. It’s nice.”

“That’s what Fluttershy said as well!” she gasped and we both shared another giggle.

We disentangled as the timer went off again and soon enough, the bowl was empty and the cake was cooling off on the counter for the next hour or so. “Once that is done,” I explained, “we cut a grid into the cake. We melt down the couverture chocolate in a water bath meanwhile. And then it gets messy.”

“Wheeeee!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly. “I love it when kitchen work becomes messy, especially when it involves chocolate!”

I chuckled and nodded. “I expected as much. With the cake cooled and cut and the chocolate melted, we need to dunk every piece in. To give it a nice layer from all sides. We should put it down on baking paper or something, so that it can cool down again and the chocolate hardens. And then we’re actually done. Took half a day, but that should be the last step.” We went about preparing the next steps. I cut the cake and Pinkie melted the chocolate down. “Say, before we started, you said that you learn a lot about ponies, watching how they bake. What did you get from me? I’ll admit, I’m a little curious.”

She grinned while leaning against the table again. “Weeell… you’re a weird one. You can be ridiculously impatient with yourself, setting standards that can’t be reached. But you are ridiculously patient and lenient with everything and everypony else. You respect your tools to the point where you sometimes thank them, which I think is adorable. You prefer to work slowly, as to minimize mistakes. You could work faster, but you don’t appreciate your own time as much as you appreciate having made fewer mistakes. You’re really organized, which helps you a bunch, but on the same note: It’s a requirement, because you’re really forgetful. You consistently scrutinize your own work, double- and triple-checking everything. You’re bad at multitasking. But if you focus on something, you can sink into this headspace where everything becomes fluent motion and it makes you more efficient. You look almost relaxed when you’re in there. But almost anything can bring you out again, so it’s hard to maintain. I would think you work best when alone, but your affinity for organization actually helps you take charge of assistants. You trust them enough to do their own work by their own rules, but you give them clear goals of what has to be achieved. Come to think of it, with minor discrepancies, you’re like a mini-Twilight.”

I just stared at her flabbergasted. Nothing of what she had said really came as a surprise. But. The fact that she gleaned all of that from just watching me bake? That was ridiculous.

“That… is… wow. Okay. Just… wow.” I shook my head. “Impressive.”

Pinkie beamed at me. “Thank you!”

We finished our work a little while later. Pinkie’s muzzle had splotches of chocolate all over the place. She called it a ‘reserve’ for later and occasionally licked one of them away. Our baumkuchen was done. Each piece had a nice, thick coating and had cooled down, so we arranged them on a large plate like a pyramid, layering the pieces of layered cake.

“I hope I don’t interrupt anything?” a voice both familiar and unfamiliar asked, surprising both Pinkie and me.

Familiar, because I knew her quite well. Unfamiliar, because I had not expected Sunny to come by today. Especially not in the Cake’s kitchen. “Oh! Hey!” I immediately trotted over. She tried to warn me that I had flour on me, and chocolate, and syrup for some reason, but I disregarded all of that and embraced her. She giggled quietly once she heard my deep, happy sigh. “Lovely to see you here,” I mumbled, kissing her neck a couple of times before retreating enough to give her a proper kiss.

Her smile grew a little as she smacked her lips. “Dark chocolate?”

I turned and gestured towards the large plate. “We have milk chocolate as well. And white chocolate. Want some?”

Pinkie used the opening to step around the table and up to us as well. “Hi Sunny! I didn’t know you would come by, I would have prepared a little something otherwise…”

“Oh do not worry, Pinkie. The thought is very much appreciated. I just needed a break and somepony,” she emphasized with a side glance towards me, “was very insistent that I take one whenever I feel like I might need one.”

I just shrugged and laughed. “Must’ve been your sister. She can be sooo pushy, right?”

She raised an eyebrow, but quietly giggled anyway. “Yes, it must have been her. How silly of me to remember anything else.”

Once we turned our attention back to Pinkie, she was patiently waiting for us with a considerably smaller plate and a selection of a dozen pieces of cake on it. “There you go,” she said and hoofed the plate over. “I’m going to clean up a little.”

I took the plate in my levitation, but otherwise hesitated. I looked at Sunny, then at Pinkie. “Are you sure? I don’t want to… you know… just abandon you here. With work left to do, no less.”

But Pinkie just snorted in amusement. “Don’t worry, silly! I’m fine, this is nothing. You should see the kitchen after Rainbow’s birthday parties. This has been a lot of fun though, we should totally do that again soon!”

“We should,” I agreed and hugged her again. “Thanks, Pinks. Maybe we will see each other tomorrow?”

“Sure!” she chirped up. “I could come over for breakfast and bring some…” She quickly turned and hid her face. I noticed a hoof rummaging in her mane and heard some strange scraping sound as she did something on her muzzle. When she turned back, both Sunny and I giggled at the ridiculous fake mustache she had quickly drawn on her face. “… croissants?”

A decent Gustave Le Grand-impression, as far as I was concerned. “Sounds lovely. See you tomorrow then.”

Sunny and I left the kitchen and got lucky enough to actually get a table to ourselves. Not that I would have minded sharing a table all that much – not in Ponyville, anyway. I put down the plate and noticed with a chuckle how three of the twelve pieces of cake had already gone missing on their way from the kitchen to our table. “Strange. Look, it’s less than it was before, isn’t it? Have you noticed anything?” I asked Sunny with a grin.

She perfectly swallowed the last bite without attracting any attention to it and only that tiny smudge of milk chocolate on the very corner of her mouth betrayed her efforts. She clearly had not noticed it and I was not about to spoil that. “Nothing at all,” she replied. “But it had been awfully warm in that kitchen, maybe you just imagined there being more? Are you hungry, by any chance?”

I grinned, leaned over and gave her a longer kiss. I even dared to let some passion flow into it and she was all too happy to accept it. Once I pulled back, I grinned even wider. “Less so now.” And just for good measure, I picked up a piece and shoved it into my mouth. The chocolate coating immediately started to melt and filled my mouth with sugary sweetness. And to my delight, the cake beneath actually tasted faintly of apples. “Yes! It worked!”

“It?” Sunny asked. She just sat there like nothing had happened. Nothing at all. With six pieces remaining on the plate. I had no idea how she did that, but it was both hilarious and impressive.

“The recipe doesn’t include apples, adding those was a stray idea I had last night,” I explained. “But you can actually taste them. I wasn’t sure what they would do to the batter. Too much acidity or too much liquid or whatever, baking is weird and I’m not Pinkie Pie. But it worked out.”

She smiled her serene little smile and nodded. “You have every right to be proud, it looks delectable.” Three pieces remaining. Wow.

“Well, yes, it’s just a shame Pinkie was so stingy. Surely she could have spared a little more than that,” I fake-complained. “Maybe I should head back to the kitchen and talk to her?”

“Hm. Well, you could try?” Sunny suggested with a hard to spot smirk.

I took her up on the offer, levitated the plate up again and made my way to the counter. Two pieces on top when I started that arduous journey of a couple of steps, and expectantly empty once I reached it. At this point, I was certain that she somehow used her magic without me noticing. Which was an impressive feat by itself, given my sensibility to magic. There were no other possibilities I could think of either, as she was still sitting at the table. She patiently waited and grinned in my direction. Maybe she just teleported them straight from the plate into her mouth? Was that possible?

I put the plate down on the counter. “Thank you, Mister Cake. It was really tasty, as usual!” He looked a little bit confused, as he could not remember me ordering anything, but smiled and nodded anyway as his next customer addressed him.

I made my way back to our table. “It’s a little stuffed in here. Do you maybe want to take a walk with me?”

Her smile grew a little bit warmer. “I would love to. I have been sitting around all day, I would welcome the change.”

We bid our farewells to Misses Cake and left Sugarcube Corner, slowly walking around town without any real destination in mind. “Pinkie had a point though,” I addressed her. “I wasn’t expecting you. Don’t get me wrong, it’s always great to have you here. But I keep wondering if there might be a specific reason for that? Did you use the stone?”

“No, I flew,” she replied. She looked up into the sky and admired the weather team's work of keeping it clear and blue. “And there really is not. As I said before, I just needed a break. You would tell me if I were to inconvenience you, would you not?”

I sighed, but smiled nonetheless. I walked a little closer to her so that our coats brushed. “I didn’t want to imply anything, love. I was really just curious. And I’m actually flattered that you flew all the way out here to enjoy your break with me. Couldn’t have been easy to find me.”

She giggled softly. “The flight admittedly was part of my break. It does feel oh so nice to stretch my wings from time to time. And while you might have been somewhat secretive about your plans for today, the same cannot be said about Pinkie. Yes, I had to ask one or two ponies, but no tracking spell was required.”

I leaned over and placed a couple of little pecks on her neck. And to my delight, I was rewarded with a giggle from Sunny. “So, tell me,” I started a little bit of small talk, “how was your day so far? ‘Needing a break’ sounds rough?”

She shook her head. “Quite the contrary actually. It had been such a sluggish day that I closed court early. Of course there was paperwork waiting for me, there always is, but…” She fell silent for just a moment, mulling things over, before continuing even quieter. “I was bored.”

For some reason, that made me laugh. And that look she shot me was enough that I tried to reign myself in quickly. I even stopped walking and pulled her into an embrace, just to mollify her a little more. “Sorry, I was just surprised. I had not expected that. You know that’s perfectly fine, right?”

“It should not be,” she argued.

“Because your every waking minute and every living breath should be spent working towards the betterment of Equestria and the lives of each and every pony in it?” I asked with incredulity. “Come on, Sunny, we’ve been over this. You deserve to be happy just as much as everypony else and ‘being bored’ doesn’t exactly contribute to that.”

“But there is always something I can do. Something I could do. I should not be able to get bored,” she insisted with a tinge of frustration.

I sighed. Right now, she reminded me of Applejack and the endless stream of tasks that had to be done sooner rather than later. “Come on. You know better. Everypony gets bored. And last I checked, you were a pony.”

“There are ponies deeming that heresy,” she warned with a lopsided smile.

“Let them come, I say,” I replied with a shrug and a grin. “There are three princesses looking out for me.” I had to laugh at my own decidedly bad joke. It sounded so incredibly ridiculous. Mostly because for whatever reason, it actually was true.

Madness.

“Well, anyway – I love spending time with you, so let’s just do that and worry another day, shall we?” I suggested with a smile and kissed her. She had a hard time disagreeing with my proposal. “Let’s talk about baking. I just made a cake with Pinks from a memory that wasn’t even ‘mine’, per se, and I used a recipe from a memory that was actually mostly centered on me arguing with somepony. So there’s that. Weird story, but funny. I want to hear of some of your escapades. There must be a reason the cooks dared to ban you from the castle kitchen.”

“They did not ban me!” she insisted indignantly.

“Well, no, they ‘politely asked you to stay away’? Or what was it?” I pressed with a grin.

We walked through town, greeting the occasional passerby, and shared a couple of stories. I made a conscious effort to stick close to her, as it was rare to get so much uninterrupted time with her and I really enjoyed the intimate closeness. Something she noticed quickly, judging by her wing draping itself over my back. It made even clearer to any onlooker that I was hers and while nopony seemed to care – we did.

“Sorry!” the voice of a young filly yelled. “Sorry!” she repeated.

My ears swiveled around, honing in on the source of that voice and my head followed suit. I saw a light purple unicorn with a yellow mane barrel down the streets, frantically apologizing to everypony she almost knocked down and apparently searching for something in haste.

That light blond mane was unmistakably the same color as the mane of her mother. Before that filly could run past us, I used my spell to quickly scoop her up. Just for a second or two, before setting her down again. “Hey Dinky! What’s the rush?” I asked her.

As soon as she realized why she had suddenly stopped and who was talking to her, her eyes lit up in joy. Which in turn warmed my heart. It was such a nice view. To know, to see, that she cared about me. “Dreamwalker!” she squealed and ran over to hug my leg. After a moment, she pulled back and remembered that I had asked something. “I, uhm… I lost my mom.”

I had to choke down that amused snort as Dinky was clearly a little bit distressed by that. I instead ruffled her mane. “Don’t worry, we’ll find her.”

“You’ll help me?” she yelled a little overenthusiastically.

“Of course I will. If Derpy ever hears I didn’t, I’m never going to hear the end of it,” I said with a grin before lowering my head and whispering to her. “And I really like having you around, so that’s a bonus.” I picked her up with my levitation and put her on my back.

“Hello miss!” Dinky greeted Sunny with a radiant smile.

“Why hello there,” Sunny replied with an equally infectious smile.

“My name is Dinky Doo! Pleased to make your acqui… ac… nice to meet you!”

Sunny giggled a little. “My name is Sunny Skies. Nice to meet you, too.”

We continued on for a while, this time searching for Derpy. According to Dinky, she was with her mom at the market, so Derpy’s shift was most definitely over, meaning she had even less reason to fly around. That was both good news, and bad news. Good, because we did not need to look up at all. Bad, because Derpy was average height and the market, it being a weekend day and all, was packed.

I did miss Sunny’s wing over my back, but some things cannot be helped. We dipped into the stream of ponies and let ourselves drift around the market, keeping our eyes open for Derpy. We eventually heard her. “Dinky?!” she cried out. And sounded a little distressed herself. Which already told me that she had noticed her missing a little while ago and searched for her.

“Over here!” I yelled in an attempt to make myself heard over the crowd. “Where is she?” I asked Sunny and she pointed to the side. We made our way over there and exited the market square, finding Derpy soon after. “Hey, look who’s there,” I told Dinky.

“Hi mom!” she immediately yelled and waved at Derpy, who, with a massive sigh of relief, trotted over to us.

“I thought I lost you again!” Derpy said, her ears splayed back. After a moment looking her daughter over, she turned her attention to us. “Thank you so, so much!”

“Don’t worry, it really wasn’t that big of a deal,” I replied with a smile. “Hey, Dinky — do you want to see a magic trick?” I offered. Dinky did not need to consider that for long before enthusiastically nodding. Seeing that alone gave me whiplash. I looked over to Sunny. “Is it alright if you carry her for a second?”

“Oh, I can help! I can help!” Dinky proclaimed. She stood up on my back on rather wobbly legs, seeing as we were still moving about, and jumped over before Sunny had a chance to answer. I did not expect her to mind much, but asking was polite and this was somepony else’s foal, after all.

“Oh! Careful there!” Sunny exclaimed as she quickly spread her wings to keep Dinky from overshooting and falling off.

“Sorry, sorry, I don’t know what went wrong, I usually have a really good aim,” the little filly explained.

“Don't worry,” Sunny answered, “as long as you didn't hurt yourself, everything is fine.”

Dinky took a second to properly settle in on Sunny’s back before all three of them turned their attention to me. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my surroundings. I quickly noticed the yet unfamiliar magical tendril attached to me and gave it a quick pull. I immediately felt the additional weight settle on my body as my night guard armor appeared out of thin air. Both Derpy and Dinky gasped in surprise.

“Eh? Ehhh? Fancy, isn’t it?” I asked with a grin. I still had to get used to... everything. The armor's weight, the enhanced sight and hearing, my slightly altered voice... “Luna gave it to me yesterday. I’m not really supposed to wear it just yet, but she said it would be better to make myself acquainted with it sooner rather than later.”

“You have bat wings!” Dinky squealed in excitement. “And weird eyes… like… like a cat or something…”

“Ah, that, yes.” I had completely forgotten about the illusion enchantment. “I don’t really look much like myself anymore, do I? Well, I mean… that’s the point, but I forgot. Somehow, it feels less cool now,” I concluded with a chuckle.

“Well, you do look good in armor,” Derpy remarked with a grin and a faint blush.

I concentrated again to dismiss the armor back to the case under my bed while Sunny carefully lowered Dinky to the ground so that the filly could scamper over to her mother. As soon as that was done, she draped her wing across my back again and while I enjoyed that on each and every occasion, I did notice the peculiar timing. So did Derpy, it seemed, as her blush became a little bit more pronounced and she averted her eyes. “I’m sorry, I did not mean anything by that,” she quietly offered.

Sunny looked at me, then at her and sighed. “It is quite alright.” I felt like I had missed something. A part of the conversation perhaps. Maybe it was a pegasus-thing? Something about non-verbal communication via their wing movements? Neither of them seemed keen to explain anything though.

“Well, we should probably head back home anyway,” Derpy continued. “I have everything we need now, cutest filly included.” She leaned down and nuzzled Dinky, who giggled in reply. “Thank you again!”

They turned and were about to leave when I suddenly remembered something. “Oh, hey, Derpy!”

“Yes?”

“Maybe make a little detour to Sugarcube Corner,” I suggested. “While I won’t be there anymore, Pinks and I made some muffins, a special treat for you and you alone. They’re waiting there.”

Derpy’s face lit up, as did Dinky’s. “Will do!”

As they walked away, I looked after them for a moment. “She’s cute, isn’t she?” I noticed how Sunny’s wing gripped me a little bit more firmly and could not help but chuckle. “I’m talking about the filly, love.”

Her grip eased a little and she sighed. “She is.”

Her voice sounded way too neutral for my taste. She was controlling herself again. “Was that a sudden bout of jealousy?”

“I am afraid so,” she admitted. “I do not know what came over me. I am sorry.”

While she did not hang her head, I did see her ears twitch in an attempt to lie down flat against her skull and I was having none of that. I turned her muzzle with a little help of my magic and kissed her. “Don’t be. Nopony was hurt and everything is fine. It’s flattering in a way. And you don’t have to fear, you hear me? I’ll be with you for as long as you’ll have me.”

She sighed. “Thank you.”

I kissed her once more, just because I liked it and for good measure as well. To put emphasis on what I had said. “Say… your ‘break’ right now, how long will that be exactly? Because I know a certain princess lives nearby and she’d probably be thrilled to have you over for dinner. And as far as I’m aware, it’s been quite a while since you two last shared an informal meal just to spend some time. And… I would not be terribly sad if, by any chance, your break extended to this night as well. Given your castle staff won’t panic, of course.”

She considered my suggestion for a moment before that genuine smile returned to her alluring lips. “That… actually does sound lovely. And I do not think they panic that easily.”

… little did we know that the castle staff had already declared a state of emergency and Luna desperately battled panicky ponies, her own sleep deprivation and her own temper, as nopony actually seemed to listen when she tried to explain the situation to them…