"Have your views on the various tribes changed?" Twilight was taking notes, as was her habit. "Since your transition."

"Um." He was about to spout an off-the-cuff answer, but it hit him that it may be a decent question. "Unicorns ain't as mysterious as ah thought they were." He rubbed his cheek slowly. "Even the ones ah knew real well, like Rarity, always had an air of... the unknown to me before. Not, like... Not a bad thin'! Rarity an' you were always alright ponies, even if it took you a while tah open up."

Twilight hovered her quill over the page a moment. "True..." She coughed into the hoof at the same side as the quill. "Sorry if I came across as--"

"Ain't nothin'," cut off Big Mac. "We all got growin' ta do. We're friends now, ain't we?"

Twilight slowly smiled at that. "This is true. Relatedly... Is this why you didn't consider me?"

"Hm?"

Twilight waved a hoof over Big Mac as a whole. "You were having thoughts about being a princess, and a neighbor just... does it. But you didn't ask about it, or even seem at all interested."

Big Mac proved that being red did not protect against blushing. "Oh, um... Well, to start, ah was still in denial. Wouldn'ta admitted it, even if ya had jus' walked up an' asked me. Even if it was me doin' the askin'."

"Even... ah, yes." A new note was quickly made. "Self denial is a very real factor. Well, you're past that." She slowly lowered the paper to the ground, resting the quill across it. "Do you have questions?"

"Actually... yes, but not fer me." He leaned in. "Fer Spike actually."

"Mm? What about Spike." She glanced towards the stairs furtively. "Does he... wish he was a pony?"

Big Mac blinked rapidly. "Not that ah know... He's mighty proud ah bein' a dragon. Um... First, gotta promise."

"Promise... what?" She pawed at the air. "I need a little more specifics there."

"Ya ain't gonna be mad, or start actin' weird none 'round Spike. It'd hurt his feelin's real bad if ya did, and he don't deserve it none." Big Mac set a heavy hoof down on the matter. "So promise."

Twilight inclined an ear. "I don't know what I'm agreeing to... If he's in trouble, I will be upset, and try to help. If he got into... mischief--"

"Ain't that." He started. "Shouldn't be looked at that way. Ya promise?"

Twilight put an imaginary cupcake in her eye. "I promise, but I am still his sister, and I will worry for him if that's alright."

"Can't rightly say no to that... Spike's havin' his own thoughts about bein' somethin' else. Must run in the family."

Twilight scrunched her nose. "Not funny! What is he thinking about? You already said it's not a pony, so... What other kind of dragon then? Big?" She spread her hooves a foot apart. "Really big?" Further, until her arms were stretched.

Big Mac gently pressed down on one of her hooves, getting them to lower. "Nope. Ain't about the size. More the shape."

Twilight considered a moment. "More muscular then?"

"Y'ain't listenin'."

Twilight darkened at that. "Sorry! Please, continue."

Big Mac let out a breath with relief. "Right... He's not lookin' at big tough dragons. In fact... bein' big an' tough is 'xactly what he don't want none." He produced a picture and set it on the table.

Twilight inclined her head at it with a squint. "Why do you have a photograph of Smolder?"

"Y'aint very shy about keepin' photos of yer students. Right proud of 'em, ah reckon. Ain't nothin' wrong about that."

Twilight tapped a hoof on the photo. "Alright, but why were you carrying it, and why did you just put it down?"

"Thinkin' 'bout Spike." Big Mac nudged the photo closer to Twilight. "Who's also thinkin' 'bout it."

Twilight colored swiftly. "He's found a new crush?!"

"N-no! Didn't mean that." He brought his over hoof to the picture. "More that he's lookin' across that fence, jus' like us, jus' a different kinda fence is all."

"Which... fence?" She squinted at the image. "Her confidence?"

"Ain't that..." Big Mac sat back with a tired chuckle. "'xplainin' this real bad, so ah'll be blunt. Spike's wonderin' what it'd be like to be a lady Spike."

"A lady..." One could almost see the error screen flash in her eyes. She went still, staring off into the middle distance.

"Uh... Twilight?" Big Mac waved slowly in front of her face, but no response came. "Ya alright?"

"I messed up, as a sister." Twilight suddenly thunked to the table between them bonelessly. "I've done nothing but grind in his face how much better it is to be a mare. I should have let him hang out with Shining more!"

Big Mac rubbed behind his head at the sudden motion and awkward words. "Uh... Well..."

"And one of his best friends." Twilight waved weakly at Big Mac. "He already hopped that fence, and Spike knows it! No wonder he was so accepting..."

"Uh... maybe in part..." The conversation was running off without him. He considered how to get a hold of it. "Ain't nothin' wrong with thinkin' about it, and that's what he's doing. He needs our help, not our pity. Keep bein' a wonderful sister."

"How can..." She sat up with an angry scowl, but it was easing away. "I don't know what to do! There has to be a book on this." She vanished with a puff, appearing by a bookshelf that she began flying along, peering at the many spines. "Wrong section! I need sexuality and development."

Big Mac slid to his hooves. "Would a pony one even be proper for a dragon?"

Twilight slid to a halt in the air. "You're right... I don't have any books on dragon sexuality! I have to ask Ember, she'd know..." She twirled in the air to face Big Mac. "Tell Spike I've gone to visit her, alright?" She vanished with a puff of smoke and a complete lack of forethought.

Big Mac buried his face in his hooves. Had he done the right thing? Honesty was the best policy, his sister had always said, and he generally agreed. Still... Doubt gnawed at him viciously. He couldn't take it back, though. "Better tell Sis." He slipped from the castle to inform Applejack where he'd be the next few days until Twilight returned.

A sharp whistle sent the herd of ponies charging with grunts of effort as they scrambled over, slid under, and did their best to get through an obstacle course. The pegasi of them, including Orchard Blossom, had a band around their middle that ruled out flight as an option.

It was part of learning. Sure, most days, or nights, a police officer wasn't called on to make such a run, but to be fit and able to do so was part of the job, and Orchard heaved as she climbed up and half-fell off the other side of the sharp hill of a barrier in the way. "Ayup..." She didn't have breath left for fancy words, just determination to get to the end.

A stallion was watching the class do their best, blowing that whistle in little tweets. "Chin up! Crawl like your tail's on fire and the water's just in front of you! Go go go!" His barking was the background of their struggles, following along after them as he offered a shout at each one of them. "You can't fly everywhere, not in a city." He was shouting at Orchard Blossom. "Things get too narrow. Ponies are inside sometimes. Things happen, and you want us to rely on you? Prove we should consider it. Move move move!"

Blossom wasn't the first to the finish line, but she wasn't the last either. She sank down just after the finish line, heaving for breath with the others that had completed the course. The teacher was still hollering at those who hadn't finished the course yet.

"You'd think his voice would quit," joked another police cadet, a stallion. "The way he just keeps right on shouting..."

"Ayup..." Orchard Blossom forced a deep inhale, recovery starting. "That was a real workout."

"You did good." The cadet tipped his hat. "We passed."

Orchard perked her ears. "Passed?"

"You didn't know?" He waved at the crowd. "The last, uh, one fifth of that crowd? They're being sent home. We made it." He thumped himself on the chest. "they do that, to winnow out the ones at the bottom and focus on the ones left behind. They'll do it again, and again, until just a few of us graduate in the end."

The shouting voice was suddenly way closer. "You have enough in you to talk like that, cadet, maybe you could do a few laps for us?"

The cadet squeaked and went quiet, allowing the instructor to go back to shouting at those trying to get through the course.

Orchard Blossom watched them intently in their struggles and saw something different than what she had been told. They weren't being kicked out, not exactly. They were kicking themselves out. Ponies who just gave up, crying, cussin', or thrashing. They could quit any time, being shouted at the whole time. A few of them got mad enough at being yelled at, they launched anew at the course, and some of those even made it.

In the end, as the cadet had said, they were missing about 20% of their numbers, but none of them had to be fired to do it.

"Noticed?" The instructor sat beside Blossom. "Your friend was talking out of the wrong end. We don't just fire cadets. We want you to pass, but that's up to you, not us. You think we don't want more police ponies on the street? We do, but they gotta be trained for the job ahead of them." He stood right back up. "Alright, form up!" He led them all off to the next part of their pain, er, instruction.

On some level, she took solace in that. If it was just the bottom 20% each time, her performance meant she'd be cut eventually just for not being close enough to the top. She just had to be stubborn, and she had practice with that before she became a princess! There werne't nopony that'd get her to give up before she was good and ready. "Nope!"

Another night, they had her standing on a simulated street corner. "Help!" came a shout from down the road and its fake wagons in its road.

Blossom snapped her wings wide and zipped down the street, swerving around the cardboard cutouts of ponies to arrive at the one living pony. "Ma'am, what's wrong?"

The mare pointed down the road. "They stole my purse!"

"Ayup." Blossom tipped her hat and zoomed after the would-be thief. She had practice with that, landing atop the rogue suddenly. He barely had time to yelp before she was already tying him up securely. "Ya got the right to keep yer mouth shut, but if ya got a good reason why you stole that mare's bag, ah'm listenin'."

"Hey, lemme go!" But she wasn't about to do that. "Look... Ah need the bits! My mudder's sick. Ain't nopony else to look out for her."

Blossom's ears twitched. That wasn't part of the lesson, or was it? "Give me her address and we'll send somepony to check in on her, since you probably ain't gonna for a while." Her horn glowed as she lifted the pony into the air in one direction, and the bag in the other. She returned the bag to the thankful mare, ending the excercise."

"Hm. Nice." Her testrunning police pony made notes. "You promised. It'll look bad for the rest of us if you go making promises just to break them. Are you ready to accept that additional work?"

"'Course, Sir." Blossom saluted sharply. "Not like she did nothin' wrong, 'side raise a colt that thought this was the right thing to do. Ah'll check on her after work."

"I see." New notes were made. "Next!" There were other cadets to administer the test to.

Author's Note

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