Dreamwalker's Tale: Last (!) Adventure

The landscape had changed in the last couple of hours.

While last night had been somewhat tumultuous, the morning had been everything but. I woke up in the softest feathery embrace, lulled in by a quiet and steady breathing behind me. It was blissful and I indulged in the moment for a couple of minutes. I just closed my eyes and listened. I could even feel her heartbeat against my back. The ‘perfect morning’-spell had to be broken eventually though. My bladder was not quite as cooperative, my stomach started to wake up and I knew that sometime soon, Appleloosa would come around. So I successfully snuck out of bed. Because despite her usually impressive perceptiveness, once Luna truly slept, it would have taken the entire train to derail to wake her up.

It allowed me to get my morning routine done and fetch some nice little pieces for breakfast from the dining car. Breakfast in bed was supposed to be a luxury. A rare occurrence used to reward and spoil. In the last few days however, it had almost become the standard.

I did not mind much.

And after we had our fill, we simply sat there. She leaned with her back against the wall and I leaned against her. With her hooves around my shoulders and little more sound in our cabin than the rattling of the train along the tracks. We watched the landscape swoop by. Green slowly faded out as a sandy yellow started to fade in.

The relative silence was not unwelcome. Every so often, she stroked a hoof over my belly and I quietly sighed in contentment. I tilted my head up enough to nuzzle her before we eventually returned to watching the probably least dramatic movie through our window. In a weird way, it felt almost cathartic.

Then the speakers crackled. There were none in the cabins themselves, but we heard the noise from the hallway outside. “Dear passengers of the Friendship Express, we will shortly reach our next stop, Appleloosa. For everypony exiting the train: Don’t forget your baggage and safe travels! We hope you had a good time with us. Exit will be on the left.” Another crackling signified the end of the announcement.

I silently chuckled a little. Luna noticed and made the quietest questioning noise I had ever heard. “Sorry,” I replied barely audibly, “it’s just the accent. That came as a surprise.”

She hummed for a moment and I was not sure if she would reply. There was really no reason to. After a few more seconds however, she did anyway. “It must have been the driver then. I cannot remember the conductor having one.”

I smiled nestled against her a little closer. But our exit was coming up and we could not stay here like this forever. Though now that a part of our journey came to an end, I had to admit… I felt a strange tinge of sadness about that. Certain events from yesterday aside, it had been quite a joyful ride so far. Worthy of being called a vacation, most certainly.

We disentangled ourselves from each other and climbed out of bed. My legs were a little stiff. The only thing I could reasonably nitpick about were the very narrow beds. I did not mind snuggling up close to Luna. But these bunk beds were designed for one — potentially larger — pony.

We levitated our saddlebags onto our backs, fastened the straps and slowly made our way to the exit. Very few other passengers waited and I doubted that many would join before the train arrived. Or would leave again. A couple of minutes later I was validated in that regard. Five, maybe six ponies along the whole length of the train stepped out onto the station platform with us already being two of those.

“Huh,” I remarked as we stood side by side and took in the scenery. “The town has changed.” It was a relatively ‘new’ town founded on the frontier. By the Apple Family, no less. Or was it? It was admittedly easy to assume that. The Apples seemed quite busy with founding villages. To the point where being farmers and dealing with orchards sometimes seemed more like a side gig.

I dismissed the entire conundrum with a shrug. It had gotten bigger since my last visit. Which was not that hard to do, since I had visited once. Years ago. Back then, less than two dozen houses were aligned along a single dirt road.

The roads were still dirt, but now I could reasonably use plural. From the looks of it, Appleloosa was maybe a third of the size of Ponyville now? Maybe half, if I was being generous? The town’s ‘core’ had not changed, however. And neither had the town’s atmosphere. A rustic, wild-west scenery, wooden houses with swinging doors, everyone and their pets wore hats and neckerchiefs. In that regard, one could argue that Appleloosa had more of a defined identity than Ponyville ever had. There was no distinct ‘theme’ back home.

“Where do we go?” Luna asked and snapped me back out of my musings.

“You don’t know?” I replied. She smiled in return which told me that she did know. I did not mind giving her a little tour though. At least according to what I knew. So we stopped just outside the train station and in between waving to reply to the friendly greetings from the townsfolk around us, I named the buildings I vaguely remembered. The Salt Block I reserved for last, as I was pretty sure that was our destination. Back when I had visited, it was still ‘just a tavern’, or saloon, as they called it here. However, they had already made plans to extend the upper stories to transform the building into more of an inn. With more and more ponies visiting, it was a reasonable enough decision and from the looks of it, they had finished translating that plan into reality a good while ago.

We made our way over, passed through the saloon doors and looked around for a moment. The place had changed, indeed. There were curtains now. Really, really nice curtains. They looked quite expensive. And the rustic wooden tables had tablecloths that looked equally high quality. The chairs had cushions. The walls were decorated. Or redecorated, rather. Small, hoofmade tapestries displaying the symbols of all four princesses. Sun, moon, heart, stars. Various designs for their backgrounds. Some oil paintings of the outback. It felt like some kind of high-class hotel, but not like a western-styled saloon. Curious.

Still, the patrons were the same, pretty much. Hat-wearing townsfolk playing cards, drinking cider, talking, enjoying their time here. And none bet an eye for the newcomers. Good.

We walked over to the bar counter. The barkeep had been busy serving another customer, but shortly after our arrival, he made his way over. “Welcome to the Salt Block, weary travelers! Oh, you must be—… hm… Dreamwalker, was it?”

I blinked. What? I took a closer look at the stallion, but I could not recognize him. Dirt-brown coat, a strangely curly, light orange mane and his cutie mark seemed to be some kind of fabric roll, maybe? “I’m deeply sorry, I seem to have forgotten your name,” I answered with a little cringe.

He laughed for a moment and shook his head. “Not to worry, not to worry. You can’t remember what you don’t know yet, after all! Name’s Royal Splendor, at your service.” He grinned and was clearly having way too much fun with this. “I’ve heard a few things about you. And who might be that lovely companion of your—“ He turned his attention to Luna and furrowed his brow as he cut himself off. I could see the cogs and wheels turn and his face evened out just as quickly to display and a demure and humble smile gracing his lips. “It is an honor to welcome you to my humble abode, my fair lady.” The space behind the counter did not allow for a proper bow, so he made due with lowering his head for a moment.

I looked over to Luna and inspected her illusion for a moment. It seemed fine to me. Still just a regular unicorn. She admittedly had yet to learn to be subtle about her color palette, but that was simply something she refused to learn. So maybe Royal Splendor had a rather impressive force of will? Or…

Royal Splendor, I repeated in my head. Maybe he was familiar with her disguise?

“And I am grateful to be here,” Luna replied meanwhile. “I take it that you can keep a secret, Royal?”

He grinned in excitement. “I shall not spoil your whereabouts to a living soul, fair lady.”

“Then you shall have my gratitude,” she said and both curtly bowed to each other.

It was such a weird exchange. Like I had suddenly fallen into a novel or something. “Wait, so, uh… you two know each other?” And both shook their heads. “But how—… what? How do you know me? How did you recognize her?”

He chuckled a little. “Oh that is actually completely unrelated,” he explained. “You see, us tavern owners have our own little convention every few years. I say ‘convention’, but in truth, it’s a rather regional affair where a couple of us meet up to discuss business, exchange some tips and tricks and maybe share some news.”

“You’re gossiping,” I concluded with a smug grin.

And he laughed and shrugged. “Guilty as charged. But you see, Appleloosa isn’t that far off from Ponyville, and I had a few words with Midnight Mint and Berry Punch.” He was watching me closely when he dropped those names and despite my media training — which provided some tactics to deal with an interrogation like this —, I saw no reason to hide anything. Midnight and Berry were friends, simple as that. Maybe not the closest friends I had, but friends nonetheless. I had no idea why they would talk about me, or what they had to say about me, and I was not about to ask despite my curiosity. I tried to be content with the knowledge that whatever he might have heard about me was coming from a friend of mine.

“And, uh…” I vaguely gestured towards Luna.

“Ah, yes. Well, that’s even simpler. I was an apprentice to the royal seamstress a few years ago.” He nodded as if that would actually explain everything. And I was sure that in his mind, it did? Somehow?

“I remember now,” Luna voiced, accompanied by a sigh.

“How did you end up here?” I asked further.

He chuckled again and gestured for a patron on one of the tables to be patient for a moment longer. “Well I was admittedly ill-equipped to deal with the whole backsta—… uhm, with all the ponies talking back in Canterlot and felt a little alienated. A friend of a friend of a relative and so on, you know how it goes, he had contacts to somepony else who needed help and I eventually took a train and never returned. I worked for Ginger for a year or so before she passed ownership of the Salt Block to me. And here I am.”

I grimaced quite a bit. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

And out of the corner of my eyes, I could see Luna grimacing as well. “No need to hold your tongue, dear Royal,” she addressed his little ‘stumble’, “I am well aware of the snake pit that the palace can be at times and how tiring it can be to deal with said cold-blooded creatures.”

He sighed in relief and nodded in her direction before he shrugged in mine. “I’m not. Sorry, that is. I don’t mind where I ended up. I love this place. And I made it my own. I like to think I’m doing quite well for myself. I have my own business, I get to know all kinds of interesting ponies and hear all kinds of interesting stories, and at the end of the day, there’s a certain very sweet and caring farmer waiting for me.” He gave me a wink and subtly nudged one of the cider bottles in his bar. Marked with the Apple brand, of course.

It still took me a moment to remember the name, though. I smiled. “Good for you and good to hear. Well in any case, we don’t want to keep you to ourselves any longer. We actually need a room for the night. But maybe we can talk some more later? I’m pretty sure we have some stories to contribute.”

He grinned and quickly hoofed us a key. “Upper story, down the corridor, right at the end. Bathroom is just beside it, but there’s only one, so you’ll have to share.”

“That’s fine, it’s just for one night after all,” I replied with a grin. “How much?”

I already lifted the flap of my saddlebags as I failed to immediately realize that I still had no idea what Luna had actually packed and thereby, if I was even carrying any bits whatsoever. But before I could properly realize that, he shook his head. “Nope. Wouldn’t be right to squeeze some measly bits out of you two.”

I really wanted to argue, but Luna graciously bowed her head and took all the wind out of my sails. “We are most grateful.”

Luna ushered me towards the stairs while Royal Splendor went about his job. “We’re still going to pay him somehow, right?” I whispered as we made our way up the steps.

“Absolutely,” she answered with conviction and grinned.

Our room was… how would Fluttershy have put it? It was nice. No, really. It was. The same pretty curtains we had seen downstairs, a fancy bed cover, high-quality sheets and blanket, nice, fluffy pillows, a table — with tablecloth of course — and a couple of chairs, a closet, a dresser, we even got a standing mirror. “I feel like this place got quite a spruce up when he took over,” I mumbled as I explored the small room. While his chosen décor clashed a little with the theme of Appleloosa, the patrons downstairs did not seem all that irked by it.

“Dump your saddlebags,” Luna instructed while she already placed hers on the table. “We will not stay here for too long.”

“We won’t?” I asked and simply put mine beside hers.

I watched her retrieve a couple of vials from one of her bags. They seemed to contain a purple liquid. “I have been cooped up for long enough. I had a plan and I intend to follow through on that.”

I stepped closer to her with a smile and placed a small trail of kisses on her neck. “Is that so? Does your plan veer more on the ‘vacation’-side of things, or is it more about our ‘adventure’? You know, I’m quite tempted to take a look at what else you have in there.”

She stopped fiddling around with the saddlebag after the first kiss, closed her eyes and sighed in contentment as I continued to pepper her neck with small kisses in between sentences. “But you will not,” she whispered.

“I won’t?”

“No.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I ask you nicely.”

I chuckled a little and nodded. “That’ll do, I guess.”

I pulled away from her and enjoyed that beautiful smile of hers as she reopened her eyes and regarded me with such warmth for a moment. “It is part of our vacation,” she answered. That was good enough for me. I nodded, we made our way back downstairs and after a wave in Royal’s direction left both the Salt Block and shortly after Appleloosa. We walked in a companionable silence for a bit, maybe half an hour. It was still midday or early afternoon when we reached the outskirts of town. No buildings, no townsfolk. Just a wide and flat barren. “Drink it,” she asked and levitated one of the flasks over to me.

“Alright. Do I want to know what it is beforehoof?” I asked in return but took the vial nonetheless. I opened it and smelled its content. I had not expected it to smell like grape juice. That made me snicker.

“I could tell you, if you insist. But I think it would be more enjoyable if you simply drank it.”

“More enjoyable, she says,” I echoed with a smirk. “More enjoyable for you or for me?” Her smirk was all I needed to know. And yet I simply shrugged and downed the entire content. Heck, it even tasted like grape juice.

As soon as the brew was down, it started to work its magic. Literally. “Oh shoot that’s strong,” I wheezed as my whole body quickly started to tingle. The sensation became so overwhelming that the best I could do was stand stock still and wait for whatever this spell was to pass. I felt it focus more and more on my head and my back, my forehead and my shoulders and I started to realize what this stuff might have done. I pressed my eyelids shut and waited it out until the tingling finally subsided.

“Phew,” I whispered with a sigh. And just because I had a feeling, I looked around for the empty vial. It was lying on the ground. I tried to levitate it and nothing happened. I crossed my eyes, ignored Luna’s snicker and saw nothing. So I reached up with a hoof and indeed, my horn was gone. I craned my neck and looked back and sure enough, I had a pair of wings now. Feathery, brown wings. I sighed. “That’s gonna be sooo annoying,” I grumbled quietly and tried to find out how they worked. My initial attempts to spread them open were… less than successful. I hopped up in hopes they might snap open on some instinctive level, but while they did rustle a little, they certainly did not open. I tried stretching next. And that opened up some new alleys. It was as if my head had not quite realized yet that there was a new pair of limbs and still had to draw the connection, both literally and figuratively.

The moment I managed to open my wings, I was confronted with a new problem. They were open now. What next? I tried for several minutes to make them flap. And I tried in vain. Sure enough, I could open and close them now and according to Luna’s continuous, barely restrained laughter, it was a spectacle to see me prance around in strange patterns and movements as I tried to get a grip on these appendages. I did not mind her amusement as long as it was just her. But I knew that I would get annoyed eventually.

A while later I finally gave up. “Luuunaaaa,” I whined. “How?”

She broke out in laughter once more and levitated the empty vial over to take a look at it. “How strange. As far as I am aware, it should not have affected your capabilities of coherent speech at all.“ She glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes.

Her mirth was apparent and while I enjoyed seeing her have fun, I slowly grew frustrated. But I was willing to play along for a moment longer. “Luuunaaaa, wings how!“ I whined a little louder and more insistent.

She almost keeled over for laughter. After she got rid of some tears, she shook her head and came over. “You need to relax a little. Let me show you how—“

And as soon as her hoof touched my wing, it quickly retracted, only to immediately snap out again and give her a face full of feathers. I cringed a little as she sputtered. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to—“

And she was laughing again. Alright. She had her fun. She needed a moment to reign her latest bout of giggles in before she straightened up and… snorted and giggled again. She held a hoof up to excuse herself, and after yet another moment, she finally managed to recompose herself. “You looked so, so, so adorable!”

I was pretty certain I flushed crimson red in an instant. I certainly puffed out my cheeks as a sign of my slight-but-not-really-real annoyance. “You did this to me. Now help me!” I whined.

With a grin wide enough to border on the maniac, she leaned in and nuzzled my wing. They reacted on their own while I gasped. I turned even a deeper shade of red as a certain spot she did something with elicited a quiet moan from my throat. And right afterwards, she started to explain as if nothing had happened. The longer her lecture took, the better she had herself under control. Her amusement did not die down as much as it was sidelined for the moment.

An issue came up quite early. One she had apparently expected. Flying was a passion of hers, despite her illusions usually showing a unicorn. Weirdly enough, Celestia was quite reliant on her magic and usually transformed herself into a pegasus when she snuck out. Maybe I should ask about that someday. Point was: Many things worked on the basis of instinct and experience. For her. She was quite certain that having these instincts was part of the transformation spell, but they were a new and foreign addition to my mind, so our earliest exercises were all about finding and implementing them.

And no matter how amused she was, no matter how much she loved me, no matter how hard I tried, Luna was still Luna. Her impatience started to rise. Slowly at first. But I could tell that she was quite eager to fly with me. “It doesn’t last long, does it?” I finally dared to ask.

“Three hours per flask,” she explained. “So it should be enough to keep doing this until tonight.”

I tentatively flapped with my wings. It felt so incredibly weird. I was still constantly trying to watch them do their work, just in case something might go awry. It felt like supervising some kind of machinery instead of working with my own body parts. I had certainly never felt like this when casting a spell. “I assume taking all vials at once would decrease the effect or something?”

She nodded. “Or something,” she replied. “The duration only stacks to a certain degree.”

She snickered once more as I took a run-up and jumped as far and high as I could manage. My wings spread open and I managed to glide, sure, but I had done that before. A single attempt to flap them and I crash-landed belly first on the ground. “Ergh.” I stood back up, dusted myself off and returned to her. “I wonder why this stuff isn’t more widespread, though. I never even heard of this possibility.”

Luna walked around me and carefully extended my left wing with her magic. It felt tingly and wanted to retract on an instinctual level, but I consciously worked against that and kept it spread. And I inhaled sharply as she brushed with her muzzle over some parts of it again. This time however, she merely took care of it as she evened out and realigned disturbed feathers. It was barely a foretaste of preening, but it already sent a shiver down my spine.

“It is a brew Zecora is capable of crafting,” Luna explained. “I would not have known about it were it not for Twilight. She is researching ways to substitute the rarer ingredients with something more common and less problematic to gather. We hope that we can eventually make it available to the public. It would certainly help those clashing with their identity. If concentrated high enough and maybe assisted by a spell or two, this transformation could be made permanent. Or so the theory. So far, all other options to change your race are spells and those are temporary.”

She finished her inspection of my wings, satisfied with their current state, and I gave them a few tentative flaps. It did feel better. And her explanation had brought a certain familiar warmth to my heart. Of course Twilight would try to ‘fix it’. She would not rest until everypony, literally everypony, was as happy as they could be.

All my lives I had been lucky enough to be content with who I was and what I was. I knew my race, my sexuality, my gender and everything was fine. But I knew that some ponies out there struggled. “Maybe I can help her,” I wondered aloud. “I mean… I don’t know much about alchemy, but an outsider’s perspective can help sometimes. Wouldn’t be the first time some offshoot-comment of mine did that.”

She nodded and sat down before me. “Come on. Climb up.”

I quickly put one and one together and could not help but laugh. “Oh wow.” I shook my head and did as she had asked while I grinned. Her impatience was apparently getting the better of her. There had been too many futile attempts to get me into the air. Lift-off was just not going to happen anytime soon.

She levitated another flask over to me. “Drink up.”

And I did just that. Which was a little bit awkward. I was so used to levitating things that the bottle almost fell. I had to take it in my hooves and fiddle around with it to get the opening to my muzzle. And it would probably have been even worse were it not for friends like Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Derpy. I usually subconsciously adapted to my surroundings and used my hooves more for menial tasks when my company did so as well. Had I spent too much time around Celestia, Luna and Twilight, I would have embarrassed myself even more, surely.

With the second bottle emptied, Luna took off. We quickly gained altitude and now, after a couple of hours with basic flight training, I found a new appreciation for riding on her back. I could see her muscles contract and ease, see how her wings angled and her joints bent. A new perspective. Everything about these motions made a little bit more sense now. And it was even a decent example to learn from.

That was until she unceremoniously dropped me, that vile prankster.

I screeched at the top of my lungs and flailed wildly with my limbs — all six of them — and she showed mercy and caught me in her levitation. She slowly glided down to me and circled around me with a smirk on her face.

“Never. Again!” I demanded, as my heart was still racing in panic. She giggled and did not even look a tiniest trace apologetic. The nerve.

She turned me over and allowed me to get my bearings. Her levitation field shrank down and she barely provided some security measure beneath me while I tried to get the hang of this whole ‘flying’-thing.

It was a lot harder than it looked.

I had to admit, though: it was a lot of fun. I did not mind failing miserably time and time again because we were out here and nopony else was seeing us and failing in front of her, with this, was somehow different. Her warm, encouraging smile always perked me right back up. There was no ‘failing’ as such. Only trying. And trying and trying and trying again. Was that not what I claimed to do all the time anyway? I tried a lot. I did not always succeed. But I kept trying.

I lost track of time at some point. The sun did its thing and wandered along her unseen path, the wind picked up and slowed down and clouds flew past overhead — and sometimes under us. Curiously enough, having wings did not provide me with the ability to walk on clouds. Luna, always the devious trickster, had suggested that I try as she claimed she did not know herself. And I once again screamed at the top of my lungs as I simply fell through. I heard her laugh all the way as she raced to catch me. She yelled ahead that I was to close my wings and then crashed into me mid-air. I was even proud that I managed to follow her order just in time, despite my panic. Then she caught me, held me tightly pressed against herself while her majestic wings spread wide again and she followed an arc that brought us back up above the clouds.

She landed on a cloud in a weird maneuver that made my head spin a little. She was lying on her back and I draped myself over her. My mane was a mess and I had some difficulties getting my breathing back under control. And I grinned like mad despite that. “You, missus, will be the death of me!” I accused her and pointed my hoof at her. She giggled, pulled me down and kissed me. And at that moment, any and all complaints died anyway.

I snuggled up to her and we just stayed there for some time. A beautiful, blissful piece of a lazy afternoon as we floated high above the ground on a cloud. It was fine. Peaceful even, as long as I managed to distract myself from thinking about the height. I eventually realized another thing pegasi had and that I lacked though: I was not accustomed to the cold or in any way fortified against it despite the transformation. Luna’s body heat kept me warm enough, sure, and she closed her wings around me as we prepared to take flight again to warm up my back and wings, but it was yet another point I had not accounted for. If I were to help Twilight with this formula, I really needed to make clear that this had to be incorporated somehow. A pony that desperately wanted to be a pegasus would most certainly feel alienated by this halfway solution. Too many pegasus-'things' were missing.

I tried to make a mental note for that before I focused on Luna again. It was time to fly off again. Knowing a thing or two about flying by now, I grew a little more ballsy this time. I tried to fly on my own. And it worked... a little bit? She swooped in and out of my field of view, she flew circles around me and made barrel rolls right above my head and it was just so incredibly satisfying to watch. “You’re majestic!” I yelled against the force of the wind.

“What?” she yelled back as she had apparently not heard me.

I sighed. And watched her do a backflip with such ease and grace that I knew hardly any words for it. “You’re beautiful!” I tried again.

She flew in my direction with another loop. “What?” she yelled again. But I saw that mischievous twinkle in her eyes this time and knew that she had heard me. She had probably heard me the first time as well. Cheeky mare. I snootily raised my muzzle and continued to fly ahead somewhat blindly. But it was the sky. What was supposed to happen? I could hardly fly into a lamp post, right?

Cloudsdale is a thing, a part of me reminded me.

Oh. Right.

We landed on the ground a few minutes later. Luna with grace, as she flapped her wings and ended her flight in a happy little prance. And I… started to panic about the vector I was coming in on and ultimately overshot my target and face-planted. “Ow.”

I heard her giggle again as she drew closer. “Are you hurt?” she asked with a tinge of honest worry in her voice.

“Just my pride,” I replied as I picked myself up. After rubbing some dirt and sand from my chin and carefully checking for scrapes, I turned to her with a wide smile. “And what’s your final verdict? I’m pretty good, eh? I think I might be a born flier. Never saw another pony fly such a straight line! Heck, I’m probably better than you. Didn’t see you fly a single straight line!”

She cracked up and I was satisfied. It took a minute or two before she had recomposed herself and all this time I grinned smugly. “Yes, certainly. You are unable to start or land, but you fly straight lines like I have not seen any other winged pony do, ever.” Her ‘praise’ was accompanied by a constant, half-stifled snicker she could barely contain.

She quickly pulled me in for a hug and I gladly snuggled up to her. “That was a lot of fun,” I concluded. “Thank you.”

We stayed in our embrace for a moment until she pushed me away just a little bit. And there was a spark of excitement in her expression that I found both alarming and intriguing. “Who says we have to be done here already?”

True enough, the second potion was still in effect. And I knew that there was a third one in her bags. Luna did not plan field trips, adventures and vacations the same way Celestia would, no. But Twilight was continuously rubbing off on her. She had known that our train was due to arrive in Appleloosa in the late morning hours. We had only arrived around midday because of some sheep that had blocked the tracks for a while. And seeing how elated she was to fly with me, I suspected that her original plan had covered an entire day with flight, flight training and mocking my miserable failures.

“You have something in mind, don’t you?” I suspected.

She blushed, much to my surprise. Just the faintest tint, but noticeable enough due to how close we were. “Maybe,” she replied coyly.

It’s Luna. What’s the worst that could happen? Of course that was exactly the line of thinking that would get anypony into hot water. But I honestly did not mind. The messes she created were usually still quite enjoyable. “Alright, fine. I’ll follow your lead.”

She looked pleased with my answer. Happy, even. Very, very happy. It made me curious what exactly I had just agreed to. But before I could decide if I wanted to ask, she was up in the air again. “This time, it’s all you. Meet me at the top.” And off she went, straight up in the air, higher and higher.

I watched her rise. She seemed so eager. Even for her. And that fact alone filled me with anticipation. “This will be good,” I mumbled to myself and my gaze fell down to my surroundings. Aaaand I immediately grimaced. “Hah. Once I get there,” I added.

I had managed to fly a straight line. No fancy maneuvers, certainly no barrel rolls. But the point was: I flew a straight line. I did not glide. So I looked around and scanned for some kind of rise or hill. Anything that would allow me a bit more elevation to start with. I quickly made my way over to the next-best hill and tried to jump from its top. I face-planted thrice. On the fourth attempt, it finally worked out as I had imagined. My hooves were still dragging along the ground for a few seconds longer than I would have liked and my muscles ached due to the violent flapping I did, buuut, it worked. I slowly started to gain altitude and even allowed myself to breathe again.

What I most certainly could not do was rise into the air in a vertical line. I had no idea how she did that. Something about angling her body vertically while her wings were angled horizontally or something. I instead did what worked for me: I flew wide spirals. Some three hundred or four hundred feet above ground, I finally caught up to her. “I did it!” I yelled in excitement. “I started on my own!”

She grinned, both proud and amused, while lazily gliding in smaller circles. “I saw,” she teased. And her tone made perfectly clear that it was a tease. She had seen everything, including the failed attempts. But again, I found it surprisingly hard to be embarrassed by that.

Once I truly was at the same height as her, she aligned her flight pattern with mine and we flew lazy circles together, almost wingtip to wingtip. “I want us to try something,” she continued more seriously, “but it is difficult and it can be dangerous. Do you trust me?”

I snorted. It was the unavoidable initial reaction. She really was serious in asking it, just as serious as her warning had been. But there was no doubt in my mind about the answer. “I do,” I replied after a few seconds.

She held my gaze, as if to test my conviction. After several seconds, she allowed herself a smile and nodded. “I will fly towards you. Mimic my movement and do not evade.”

I nodded and she angled herself away from me. She flapped her wings a few times to gain altitude and speed and flew a wider circle before she aimed towards me, just as she had announced. I saw her horn — still invisible due to the illusion — light up, but whatever spell she had cast, there was no visible effect. And then she angled herself in that weird way again.

Trust her, I told myself. She had seen me fly. She knew how bad of a flier I was. She knew my weaknesses, as there were plenty of them. She knew exactly what I was capable of. I tried to mimic her as best as I could. Both front hooves and back hooves outstretched towards her, as if I was standing on a vertical surface. My wings were unused to this angle and got confused immediately. But before I could actually start to tumble, those precious few fractions of a second, that was enough. Luna reached me and her hooves connected with mine. I felt a little jolt run through my legs as they firmly held together. Almost like… like magnets?

Her wing power alone was more than enough to keep us hovering, but she did so only for the briefest moment. “Trust,” she reminded me right before she did some kind of wing trickery. We suddenly turned upside down. And we did start to fall. Head first.

My heart immediately started to race, as panic set in. My wings tried to keep me afloat, but that did not work out as intended. And my eyes were drawn to her. She was calm. Serene. Beautiful. And she smiled. With the same warmth and encouragement she had shown me this entire time. And so I tried. After all — I did that a lot. I tried to not be wary. Not to panic. While the wind howled in my ears, while the clouds shrunk down above us and the ground came closer below us. And to a certain extent, I succeeded. I sank into her eyes and I managed to keep on top of my panic. I managed to keep the lid closed. Just enough, barely enough, due to her calmness.

We plummeted downwards in a spiral. Luna used just enough of her wings to make sure of that. Somewhere in the back of my head, Twilight’s chipper voice continued a lecture I had heard at some point. Another life, maybe. It sounded distant. About the mating flight of bald eagles. How they flew a wider spiral up into the air and then crashed into one another and interlocked their claws before tumbling towards the ground in a tight spiral.

I was pretty sure I was not as good a flier as a bald eagle.

But that mattered little as Luna leaned in and kissed me. It was brief. It was chaste compared to the many kisses we had shared so far. “Fly,” she whispered. Due to the wind rushing past us, I heard not a single word. But I could read her lips well enough. And she pushed us apart. I managed to turn over, spread my wings and flapped as hard as I could. Fly, she had said. So I tried.

I panicked considerably once again as I realized just how close the ground had truly been before she pushed us apart. But I managed. I managed to not crash-land again. I instead landed in a canter and slowed down to a trot and finally stood still. My agitated wings folded and unfolded continuously on their own accord, my heart tried to break out of my chest and I was not entirely sure what exactly we had just done. But Luna was with me within moments and before I could utter a single word, she kissed me once more. It was a lot less chaste this time. A surprising amount of passion bled into the gesture and with my adrenaline this high… I reciprocated without thinking.

Despite her being larger than me, I found it surprisingly easy to push her onto her back. Our kiss only deepened, barely ever interrupted for breath, and my hooves eagerly traced along her toned form.

“Take me,” she quietly moaned.

And with no further foreplay, I complied. Her gasp and mine intermingled and her panting and moaning and her body writhing beneath me was all I cared about soon enough.

Minutes passed. The evening sun slowly grilled me. But I couldn't care less. I clung to her side. Satisfied, spent, still somewhat thrilled. The adrenaline rush subsided slowly. My head cleared away the haze. This... it had felt different. I was used to spur of the moment decisions with her. I was used to getting overwhelmed or surprised. Luna somehow always managed to coax out my more spontaneous side. But this? “Phew,” I said quietly and nuzzled her side.

She giggled in reply. “Yes.”

“So… mind telling me what that was all about?” I asked with a chuckle as I kissed her neck, then her jaw, and finally her cheek.

She inhaled deeply and exhaled in a content sigh. “Back when I was young,” she started…

… and I immediately interrupted her with a chuckle. “So in ancient times.”

“I could throw you back to Canterlot, you know?” she threatened me with a smile. She pulled me tighter against herself so that she could reach my ear and gave it a soft nip. “Or I could grind you into dust,“ she purred quietly. The tip of her tongue slowly traced along the edge of my ear and made me shudder in delight. “I think I would like that.“

I pulled my ear free and angled my head up to kiss her longingly. “So would I.“ Even though we were both more than willing, it would not work out. We knew it. We flew for hours. And the adrenaline was still receding. Maybe her stamina would play along — mine certainly would not. So I sighed and gave her a peck on her nose. “I’m sorry. Please, continue.”

Mollified, she did just that. “It is a wedding custom.” That left me speechless. “Or it was. ‘In ancient times’, I suppose.” She smirked and winked at me. “Even back then, it was considered too dangerous by many pegasi. But some who were daring enough, brave or foolish enough, kept the tradition alive. From what I can tell, it is mostly forgotten these days. But I had always wished to experience it, to have a traditional—… well.”

As my brain slowly caught up, I chuckled quietly. “Did we just marry?”

Luna smiled. She looked so overjoyed, so happy and full of passion and love. “Not according to any documentation or legal procedure.”

I grinned and pulled her in for another kiss. And maybe a bunch more after that. I let go of her once I had enough. For now. “We totally did,” I concluded and snuggled up to her once more. “And we consummated our marriage as well. I mean… we’ve always been moving quickly, I guess…” A wedding custom. Tumbling from the sky, interlocked with each other. Thinking about it now, with a clearer head… yes, it was quite dangerous. I was pretty sure that Luna had navigated for both of us. I could not remember my own wings doing much while we spiraled down. But as far as I was concerned, that was okay. And it totally still counted. “The answer is yes.”

“Hm?” she asked.

“Yes,” I repeated, “I would love to marry you. You’re usually supposed to ask that before the wedding, but hey, I don’t mind.” And truly, I did not. I would at some point marry Celestia. Officially. With… what was it? Documentation and legal procedure. And maybe laws would change someday. And I could marry her as well. And Twilight. But as far as proper documentation was concerned, I had one fiancé and one only.

Who gives a crap about that. I kissed Luna again. “So, according to legends,” I started again, “you’re now going to transform into a dragon, right?”

She giggled. “That might be something interesting to test later. They supposedly have some very interesting anatomical differences.”

That was not what I had meant. And she knew that perfectly well. Still, I chuckled despite myself and nodded. “Hm. Looking forward to it.”

It slowly dawned on me as we were lying there that technically, somepony could have seen us. A lot of ponies could have seen us fly around all afternoon and evening. But more importantly, somepony could have seen us consummate our marriage. Somepony could most certainly have heard us. The barren was wide and flat and with little obstructions. Sound traveled fast and far. And Luna was quite a loud lover. Something that was thrilling and exciting and now served perfectly to get my anxiety started. “We, uhm… we should probably head back to the inn?”

We got up, dusted each other off and walked back. In my case because, honestly, I was beat. Having wings had been fun and all, but I looked forward to having my horn back. My entire back ached. My wings ached. My legs ached. My everything ached. And while she did not say anything, I highly suspected that Luna’s wings could use some preening after our latest activity. Lying on the ground in a sandy barren was something else than lying on a smooth, soft bedsheet. The adrenaline and the excitement had surely dulled it a little, but I could not imagine it being all that comfortable.

I was genuinely relieved that we did not catch any odd looks when we reentered town. Nopony giggled or whispered behind an upheld hoof, nopony blushed or got out of the way. Everything seemed fine. Normal. Nopony cared, or better yet, maybe nopony had noticed. I would gladly accept the latter as my new head canon for what had happened. That is, nothing.

We entered the Salt Block and Royal was behind the bar counter. It was late evening and, well, the Salt Block was packed with customers. All of Appleloosa seemed to be here. Royal Splendor and two other ponies, probably employees, had all hooves full. They ran around between packed tables and served drinks and food and whatnot. That certainly did not look like we would be telling stories anytime soon. Another time then.

There was an upside to this though. With everypony down here, I highly suspected that barely anypony was upstairs. “We could take a bath,” I whispered to Luna who quickly and quite eagerly approved of the idea. So we made our way to the stairs and waved a little greeting in Royal’s direction as he noticed us sneak away. The bathroom was a simple affair, but the plumbing was decent enough. Steaming water quickly filled our large wooden tub and we eased ourselves into the warmth with a satisfied groan from each of us.

The heat seeped into my bones and made it all the more apparent how dead on my hooves I was. Luna was a bit better off with her alicorn stamina, but she still relished the chance to relax a little. We soaked for a few minutes, but of course somepony came and knocked. We had closed the door and used the key so that nopony would just barge in, but we could not just let whoever was outside wait forever. “A moment please,” I called out.

“It’s fine, don’t rush,” the voice of a mare replied.

I looked over to Luna and smiled lopsided. “Well, it seems like the bath time is over. But I have another thing in mind. Do you want to join me?”

As I reached out with a hoof, she smiled and took it. “With pleasure.”

We exited the tub, dried ourselves off with a few towels and let the drain consume the water. We were surprised to find nopony waiting in the hallway. “Huh. Maybe she went down again?” I wondered but ultimately shrugged and ushered Luna to the end of the hallway and into our room. “Lie down on the bed please.”

She obviously already knew what was coming and preemptively already expanded her still damp wings. And I got to work. The upside of having intimate relationships with three alicorns was — aside from numerous and obvious other benefits — that I had a lot of practice by now when it came to preening. Adding to that was the fact that I remembered some minor little hints and tricks from previous cycles concerning Luna’s preferences and I actually felt well-equipped to transform what was a simple matter of personal hygiene into a decently good time. And she was enjoying herself quite a bit, if her happy sighs and content hums were anything to go by.

Once I was done, she carefully folded her wings on her back. “Thank you. That was quite pleasant.”

I smiled, took care of a few little things and finally crawled into bed beside her. We were lying muzzle to muzzle. She closed her eyes and dozed a little while I watched her for a couple of minutes before my mind inescapably started to wander off.

I was a little apprehensive about the next few days and what was to come after that. A small voice in the back of my head told me in no uncertain terms that the vacation part of our journey would most decidedly end as soon as we reached hostile territory. And since I could not just stop thinking, but barely managed to offer a certain direction to think in, I turned my attention to the past and the way we had already come. It quickly devolved into a jumbled mess of course, as my thoughts seemed to jump from memory to memory without apparent rhyme or reason. But one thought eventually stuck out. One memory, to be specific. And I really wished it had been something else. Anything else, really.

But right there, before my mind’s eye, was the very moment I bid my farewell to Moondancer and I, the idiot that I was, leaned in. To kiss her presumably. Even now, I could not tell. I could not tell what my own intentions had been. That was a disturbing thought. It always was. I considered myself a very self-reflective pony. I was aware of my inner turmoil and conflicts, of my urges and impulses, of my emotions. I knew what I did and why. Uncertainty was rarely left unchecked, rarely allowed to linger. I dissected it. Studied the circumstances of its creation. Until I eventually figured it out. And I usually did.

This time however, I was stumped.

It was not this moment alone of course. It was the whole Moondancer-conundrum. This one moment only represented the greater whole. A symbol for something that was wrong and that I did not understand.

“You are brooding,” Luna’s voice suddenly cut into my, well… my brooding.

“I’m not,” I defiantly stated a little too hastily. I looked at her and noticed that her eyes were still closed. But my reaction elicited a soft smile on her lips.

“Mhm.”

“How would you know,” I tried to keep up my argument.

Her smile grew a little wider. “I can hear you think.”

I sighed. She trolled me again. Hopefully. That would be a lot of noise I had made in the past otherwise and would probably continue to make in the future. “Can I ask you something?” I finally relented after a good deal of hesitation on my part.

I suspected it was that tone in my voice that made her open her eyes. Beautiful cyan. “Of course.”

I sighed. I wondered for a moment why I started sorting my thoughts only now. As if she would potentially have denied my request. I quickly realized I needed some sort of preamble again. That was easy to come by at least. “You’re beautiful.”

She smiled. “Thank you. However, I doubt that this was your ‘question’.”

“No,” I replied, “but you are. And I don’t just mean pretty on the outside. There is so, so much to love and adore about you. To admire. Your grace. Your elegance. Your confidence. Your intelligence. Your humor. I can’t be the only one seeing it. In fact, I know I’m not the only one. Twilight sees it, too. Maybe not the, you know, the exact same stuff. But she sees it. She understands it. And that’s a… a precedent, then. I know of a few guards that have deeper feelings than mere loyalty for Celestia. It’s… it’s always a bit awkward. And I can’t imagine that there’s nopony else interested in you. That Nopony else is trying to court you. Maybe nobles. Maybe members of the night guard? Neither you nor your sister ever talk much about that. I don’t mind. I don’t ask, to be fair. I’m not sure how to handle that, what to make of it. But I just… I assume it’s there. The gifts. The offers. The… opportunities, I suppose. And without wanting to imply anything — truly, I don’t! Are you ever… you know… tempted?”

She remained silent for a while. Maybe she tried to decipher my intentions and motivations. What my point to all this was. I could not tell. “I went to a benefit gala last month.“ I even remembered that. “I cannot remember who hosted the event. It was yet another drab and boring affair, and I would have loved to have Twilight or you by my side. Alas, you were both busy.“ It was an example. I knew that. Yet despite this, I grimaced slightly. She had told me about it. Lady Valencia's Gala for Everypony. A distinctly exclusive event. Twilight could not attend because she was with Celestia. They had searched for weeks to find a day where they could just meet up and share some time. I could not remember for the life of me what I had been busy with. I could remind Luna. But that was not the point. She had already made that much clear. So I kept my silence and let her move on.

“It was not the first time I found myself in such a predicament, of course. I can make due with what I have. In this instance, a lovely mare came to my rescue. I suspect you are familiar with Fleur de Lis? She is a model, as far as I know. For all intents and purposes, she is gorgeous. Many consider her the epitome of beauty. And I do not think they have that opinion because of her looks alone. Though I must admit, she is quite a sight.” The very same moment I grimaced slightly, Luna softly giggled. Retribution was had. “She is a lovely mare, from what I can tell. Kind-hearted and soft-spoken, but confident and shrewd. She is a notorious flirt and a relentless tease.”

I smiled, despite the small twinge of jealousy. “Reminds me of somepony.”

Luna leaned in and kissed me briefly. It was chaste but I relished it nonetheless. “There are others that… propose. But was I tempted?” She only briefly fell silent before she shook her head as best as she could. “No.”

While a part of me was relieved, an even bigger one felt guilty. And now of course, an unspoken question lingered in the air. Why do you ask, her eyes questioned me. “Do you know Moondancer?” I managed to overcome my hesitation.

Luna furrowed her brow as she searched her memory for that unfamiliar name. “She is one of Tia’s librarians, is she not?”

I chuckled. “You do realize that those are your librarians as well? Since, you know, those are your Archives as well?” She grinned for a moment and made a dismissive hoof gesture. Details. Honestly, maybe that was for the better. Despite the lack of visitors, there were too many ponies claiming ownership of the Archives as is. “But, uhm… yes. That Moondancer. I…” I sighed. And for a brief moment, I thought back to when we had been flying. Right before we started to tumble to the ground. It’s about trust. “I might have maneuvered myself into a bit of a pickle?”

“Have you fallen in love with her?” Luna straight up asked.

I should have expected as much. She was straight-forward if given the choice. She would never beat around the bush. I grimaced and once again spoke too hastily. “No!” But was that true? “No, I…” I sighed. “I don’t think so?” And I felt ashamed. I don’t think so. Where was that self-reflection I was so proud of? Was that really the best I could do? I sighed once more and dared to look into her eyes again. There was no judgment. No anger or distrust or feelings of betrayal. Nothing visible, anyway. “Are… are you mad?” I meekly asked. I needed to know. I needed to make sure that I had not hurt her.

To my surprise, she softly giggled in response. “Mad? Why would I be mad?” Before I got a chance to reply, she just as softly kissed me. “We had more sex in the last days than in the last two months. You never seem to grow tired of fawning over me, or complimenting me. And I think I know sincerity when I see and hear it. I like to think that I know you. I never talk about my suitors because I know that it makes you feel uncomfortable. You do not know how to handle that, and I see no reason to force you to. You trust me and that is enough for me. And just a few hours ago, you married me. You could have backed out as soon as you learned of its significance, yet you did not. You accepted me and my silly little fantasy with all your heart. Without hesitation or doubt. I think I am quite certain of your dedication and love.” I felt my face heat up a little. “Please. Continue.”

Continue, she says. Like it’s that easy.

I took a moment to recollect myself. Again. It was not exactly the most fluid conversation we ever had, but then again, the difficult ones rarely were. “She is a friend of mine. I would like to call her a good friend, but that's honestly hard to tell. She’s a bit of a recluse. Very knowledgeable. Always has her muzzle in some book or twelve. She’s… a little rough around the edges, to put it diplomatically. I don’t meet up with her that often. She rarely initiates meetings with friends herself. It’s mostly us dragging her out of her library, or her home, which is almost the same thing anyway. In many ways, she reminds me of Twilight. Prior to crown, wings and resocialization. But there’s a lot more that reminds me of her. She’s a friend and I just… I don’t want to hurt her. Or any of you for that matter.” Please help me. It was implied, right? There was no need to actually say it if it was strongly implied. I was pretty sure that was how it worked. I sure hoped so.

“How aware is she of your… hm… concerns?” Luna asked with a little bit more hesitation. Probably due to the difficulty of finding an appropriate term for that mess. Something I struggled with as well. It was not just about my feelings. There was a lot more playing into this.

I grimaced. “After last time? Uh… very. I’d say, she’s very aware of it now.” Maybe I should not have left her like that. Maybe I should have asked if we could go inside and talk about it more. Maybe I should have tried to… well, what? Brute force the issue?

“Do you want her?”

Luna’s question caught me completely off-guard. “I—… what?” But she did not elaborate, nor did she take anything back. I shook my head a little more violently, just in an attempt to clear it. I blinked, as if that would help. And slowly tried to work through my shock. “I don’t… know? I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m feeling, or what I want, or what… any of this means, I’m just confused. All I can think about are these issues that seem more important and at the same time less important. Like… I haven’t said a single word to Sunny for now. Because I didn’t—... I convinced myself that this wasn’t an issue. For quite some time, I think? A-And same goes for Twilight. And it’s so hard to keep them separate, like, when we’re close, I mean? Twilight and Moondancer, I mean. It feels familiar, and it really shouldn’t. I think I keep projecting onto her or something. And burden her with expectations I have for Twilight, that’s just so incredibly unfair to just about everypony…”

Luna sighed and raised a hoof to stroke down my neck again. A familiar gesture that helped to calm me down. “As long as you cannot tell with certainty what you are feeling, what you want from her and for her, there is little I can say or do to help you.”

I felt like choking. My throat was tight and my voice quavered a little. “What if I mess up?” I whispered. And my voice sounded so deathly afraid. It was a surprisingly good mirror for what I felt.

“My niece used to say: Love should never be wrong,” Luna replied. “And I dare say that Twilight shares this sentiment when it comes to friendship.“

Just thinking about Cadance added a little stomach pain to the whole mix. I was not meddling in her affairs again this time. So that was a plus. And maybe asking her was not the worst idea ever. I just dreaded it. For some reason I could not explain well, I dreaded asking her. Cadance was imposing. Intimidating, even. And I had no idea why.

We fell into silence. Each of us followed their own thoughts for several minutes. I tried to come up with a plan to contact a certain Princess of Love. I tried to psych myself up enough to actually do it. And Luna apparently mulled the scenario I had presented her with over.

“There is another possibility,” she spoke up again.

“What do you mean? Possibility for what?”

“For what you might feel towards her,” she answered. I looked at her and patiently waited for her explanation. “I am no expert. The scientific field of psychology did not exist as such before my banishment. But I think that you might simply be attracted to broken things.” I grimaced. That sounded horrible on so many levels. “For all I can tell, you are a supporter. It defines the core of your very being. You raise up those around you as best as you can. You help them achieve. You secure. You give comfort. You help mend wounds. You give all you can and in some cases all we allow you to give. While rarely asking anything in return and rarely taking anything. You have once told me about your first encounters with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy in this life. In a way, they were hurt. And you did what comes naturally to you. My sister claims proudly that she is not broken. And that it is not your place to ‘fix’ her. And yet I see wounds slowly being mended that she refuses to acknowledge. And I see them mended through smiles you are responsible for. And I… well. Let us just say that we all have our cracks and scars. That is the price of living. Maybe you do not love Moondancer. But neither did you love Pinkie Pie in a romantic way, did you? You mentioned being attracted to her, yet you still knew… how did you put it? ‘Where she belonged, and where your boundaries were’. From what little you told me about her, she sounds, above all else, lonely. Maybe even caught in a cage of her own design. What she seems to require is companionship. And since she is dear to you, your instinct is to provide. To give what you can. Only this time, what you try to give might no longer be yours to give freely.”

That theory would align with me choosing Celestia over everypony else. I grimaced slightly and turned my muzzle to groan into the pillow. It made sense? To a certain extent? Sure sounded very reasonable right now. It just did not help, did it? It was not exactly a step-by-step instruction manual on how to proceed from here. “What do I do, Luna?” I asked, still muffled due to the pillow in my face.

With a quiet sigh, she pulled me in and thereby away from my muffler of choice. “You wish to provide warmth and comfort to a pony that is important to you. As long as precise boundaries are set and upheld, I see no reason to discourage you from doing so. But as you already know, I am not the only one you will have to talk about that with. I have managed to make my peace with you courting Twilight and I admittedly even enjoy the thought of it at times. I usually refrain from thinking too much about my dear, beloved sister in that regard, but even that did not prove as much of an obstacle as I expected it to be. And I say this because I do think that, out of the three of us, I would be the one most likely to object.”

“So you’re giving me a license to snuggle?” I tried to lighten the mood a little. My own, mostly. It was still a measly joke. And one in poor taste as well, probably.

Luna smiled and nodded. “Within reason, yes. We will have to talk about this in detail of course. But as I said, I am quite certain who your heart belongs to. And that gives me peace of mind.”

I still had a lot of soul-searching to do. I needed to figure out what I wanted, just like Luna had said. She slowly levitated the blanket over our embraced bodies. I was looking forward to dreamwalking for the first night. The first night side by side with my wife. And that thought alone managed to perk me up and filled me with excitement.