A Whisper on the Wind

The rest of the week flew by with very little fanfare; Flame recuperated while seeing if our little tryst took hold, Tricks and Stopper each took some time off while Estrus was in full swing, Crush continued to work, while Ace and I gradually began spending more time together after our little ‘experience’.

The morning afterward had been spent giving Scar a run-down of my successful coupling with Flame, and that was followed by my formal submission to her of a plan to explore the surrounding areas. We agreed upon a week for her to call a formal briefing together, and that time would enable her to gather as much data as she could about the current status of the world around us for us to all agree on our next steps.

This morning I was scheduled to resume my magical training with Tricks and Stopper, and I was now on my way to a newly commissioned structure that I’d requested to collate together all of the magical artifacts and knowledge scattered around the settlement, both for future reference and to assist me as I grappled with the gravity of the new ability I now had.

The building was a three-story cylindrical stone structure with a tiled blue roof, located on the northern boundary of the settlement. The tower had been present previously, but had been in a state of disrepair until only yesterday; with the help of the settlement’s small engineering corps and some laborers, plus support from me with some of my new magic, it had been repaired in only a few days using repurposed stone taken from several other ruins beyond the settlement. Looking at it from afar, it reminded me of the typical Mage Towers seen in numerous fictional settings.

The past week had also started to present me with certain… dietary challenges. I’d supplemented my diet with extra fruit and vegetables (including what looked like analogs to chickpeas and lentils), but I’d been having cravings lately for meat… several times, in fact. I didn’t know how I was going to solve that problem, but for now, I’d have to make do without a solution, much to my distress.

Entering the tower, I noticed both Stopper and Tricks present, each carrying out specific duties related to securing everything magical. The center of the room had a large circular table, upon which lay numerous scrolls, tomes, crystals, gemstones, and as-yet-unidentified magical artifacts, all of them awaiting indexing and cataloging.

All were arranged according to an indexing and cataloging system that yours truly was happy to implement. Maybe one day I’d even organize it into one of my beloved spreadsheets; for now though, paper and quill would have to suffice, with a master parchment listing everything.

As I approached the table, I couldn’t help but notice the arrangement of crystals on its surface, with dividers and deliberate separations even between crystals of the same color. “Hey, Stopper… what’s with the layout of these crystals?” I asked, intensely curious.

The unicorn walked over. “Crystals need to be kept separated. If you allow them to touch, they can discharge some of the energy stored within it.”

My curiosity grew bigger. “Discharge… how?” I pressed.

“Well…” she continued, “It’s one of the most ancient principles of magic application; every strike of a crystal is met with an equal and opposite reaction. So, if I were to strike two green crystals together, the energy would exit the struck crystal in the opposite direction to the strike. The energy would be in its raw form and would be potentially dangerous to anything living.”

I sometimes cursed myself for my species' natural affinity for war, and today was no exception, for I could easily see a way for that natural law to be weaponized.

“I'm… going to pay Crush a visit later regarding that. For now, though, I believe we have some more training to do?” I reminded her.

Stopper didn't even look up. “You have a visitor in your chambers to take care of first.”

Puzzled, I decided to prioritize them instead. “Very well, then; I'll see to them first,” I said, turning to and then walking up the spiral staircase.

I passed the room on the first floor and slowly made my way to the second floor, where a brown wooden door surrounded by stone greeted me.

To be pony-friendly, I chose to employ neither handles nor knobs, the door itself able to be pushed open by hands or hooves alike.

Applying gentle pressure, the door easily swayed open, revealing my new quarters and my new impromptu visitor, who was currently lying down on my bed.

“If this is room service, I’d like to order the buttered lobster and creamed spinach, please.” I jested in Flame’s direction.

The mare smiled at me, bouncing off of the bed and almost rugby-tackling me into a hug, her hooves tightly embracing me. Tussling her mane a bit, I casually waddled over to the bed with her still attached to my torso. “ Hey, um… how've you been feeling since we, uh.. you know…?” I asked, still not really believing that we’d hooked up.

Finally separating herself from me, she joined me on the bed, lying down at my side. “Well, my symptoms disappeared the next day; that’s normally a good sign!” she said, her smile positively beaming from her muzzle.

I was happy for her… no, that’s not quite correct, I was ecstatic for her. To think that we might've actually added something positive to the universe together…

“I’m very glad to hear that. But, I get the feeling that this isn’t a social call…” I said, trying to tease out the real reason for this visit.

Flame nodded. “As of this morning, I’m your new yeomare.”

I mulled the proposition over; Yeomen in the military on Earth were tasked with administrative duties. “So… that makes you my new military secretary, then?” I asked.

“Sort of, yes. I'm not officially part of the military, so I'm not obliged to obey any orders, but I will be organizing your day-to-day life to help make this whole wizard-in-the-tower thing a little easier.” She explained.

I was grateful for the help, pulling in my new colleague for a hug, the only reply being a super-adorable squeak as my hands held her close for a moment.

“So… what's our first order of business?” I asked, immediately choosing to make use of my new assistant.

“You've got your magic training at ten hundred, Scar's briefing at fourteen hundred, and I think that's about it… unless you have something you wanted to add?” She asked inquisitively.

I nodded. “Can you put in a meeting with Crush for seventeen hundred? I want to follow up on our midweek talk regarding a ranged weapon.”

Flame too nodded her head. “Sure, I can organize that.” She said, hopping off the bed and making her way down the stairs, presumably to talk to Crush.

I followed, but only until I got downstairs, deviating to bother Stopper once again. “So… now that that's over with… what's say you and I continue with my training?” I nudged as she continued to work.

She looked at me before going back to organizing some crystals… I think. “You've already gone through the basics… how's your magical history knowledge?”

“Only one way to find out”, I replied, shrugging my shoulders.

“Very well,” the unicorn began, “Who was the first Archmage of Equestria?”

“Pfft. That’s an easy one,” I responded. “Starswirl the Bearded.”

Stopper smiled. “Well, the first one’s always just a warm-up. How many Thaums in a Kilothaum?”

I pondered for a moment, realizing that she’d asked me a question very open to interpretation. “Classic or Modern scale?”

“Hmm… Modern.” she countered.

“Well… the Modern scale accounts for inaccurate measurements made with older equipment. The Kilothaum was rebalanced to one thousand and twenty-four Thaums about a hundred years before the return of Princess Luna.”

“Alright,” She continued, “What about… Celestia's Second Law of Magic?”

You are going to have to get up much earlier in the morning to catch me out, Stopper.

“Trick question,” I smiled. “There's only one law in Celestia's name, and it states that ‘Friendship is Magic’... whatever that means.”

Rolling my eyes a bit, I went fishing through the crystals to retrieve the yellow one from earlier that Alex had recorded some thoughts on. I'd replayed the damn thing over and over again during the past week, looking for anything I might have missed.

He pretty much said that anyone going looking for the rest of these crystals is as crazy as I am. If that's not an open invitation, I don't know what is.

I still didn't know how I was going to find them, but Alex had at least thrown me a clue; something about these crystals was supposed to be making them emit a magical signal. I just needed a way to first identify that signal, and then seek out further signals just like it. The script in the middle of the crystal had been tricky to translate at first until Tricks realized it was a dialect of Old Ponish, the original written language of ponykind. After that, the script's translation came out as ‘Memories of a Wanderer: Crystal One’.

I pocketed the crystal for now, and turned to the sound of the front entrance opening; Flame stepped across the threshold, dusting herself off.

“Let me guess, he’s been using too much flux again?” I asked, knowing full well the answer.

Flame sighed in my direction. “He’ll be ready for you this evening, he’s just putting the finishing touches on your commission.”

I folded my arms and smiled. “Excellent. One more thing… do you think Scar could be persuaded to move up that briefing to, uh, now if possible?”

“I… suppose.” She responded, “Do you still want her and the others to meet us at the usual briefing room?”

I shook my head. “No. The Basement.”

—

I was honestly quite proud of how it turned out.

I'd given Tricks and Stopper essentially free reign of how to organize the ground floor, while Flame insisted on organizing and fitting the first and second floors.

Me?

I'd chosen the basement level, accessible via an extension of the same winding staircase, as my personal project. Inside it was a slightly larger round table than the one on the ground floor, with several wood chairs arranged around it. The ceiling was punctuated by magical illumination candles, giving the room a medieval ambiance.

Each chair had a long back, and I’d worked with several others to add a little bit of a personal touch to each, reawakening my woodworking days in secondary school.

Atop each chair's back now had a replica, etched into the wood, of each cutie mark of my friends.

My table didn't have a cutie mark; instead, wanting to at least have some sort of distinguishing mark, I opted for one of the most iconic signs of my neighborhood that I’d also adopted into my academic work.

Inscribed into the wood of my chair was a large, stylized “S”, known informally as the “Cool S”; as it matched the first letter of my name, I’d always felt an affinity to it. I used it in all my communications to Alex, just as he’d used his chosen mark in his writings to me, the mark of six overlapping circles that I'd now instinctively begun to associate with him.

Scar had agreed to my earlier meeting request, and had adorned the table with its crown jewel upon her arrival: a highly detailed map of the known world was now spread across it… or at least, this known conglomeration of continents was.

Filtering in was everypony I'd invited; Ace and Flame arrived first, who then seated themselves to my left and right respectively. Next, Crush arrived, who took a seat behind Ace, while Scar sat in her chair behind Flame. Lastly, Tricks and Stopper came down the stairs, Tricks taking his seat behind Scar and Stopper taking hers behind Crush.

Once everypony was seated, I then joined them, taking my seat in front of everypony. Casting my eyes around, I broke the silence.

“Thank you all for your help over the last week; I can think of no better place to help us organize and plan our next moves than here,” I said, smiling with a professional joy I hadn't felt in a long while.

“This wouldn't have been possible without your magic,” Scar mentioned. “The amount of stone and tiling you moved was beyond anything we could've done in that short a time.”

I nodded. “Just doing my bit to help, that’s all. This briefing I asked for here is primarily for my benefit… but this should have applications for everypony here. So, let me lay this properly before you all…”

Fishing out the yellow Mnemosyne Crystal from my pocket, I stood up and gently placed it on the table. “I know that you only have my word for what I saw… but I’m sure you trust me enough to know that I wouldn’t lie to you. Alex, it seems, has made several recordings, sealed inside crystals like this one, for his friends and family. I don’t know if he somehow intended for these to one day find their way to Earth, or if he was just doing this as a form of therapy… or even something else entirely. Either way… I owe it to him to recover these. This goes beyond friendship, professional respect, and even personal feelings; This is a matter of honor for me.”

I looked around the room and moved the crystal further up the table. “This is something I have to do; the rest of you… do not.” I conceded, sitting back down again.

“You’re not doing all that alone,” spoke Crush, adjusting himself in his seat. “You’ve been a breath of fresh air around here. I say that we all pitch in for what you need to do.”

“You mean to risk our lives, don’t you?” said Stopper, really cutting to the heart of the matter. “Don’t get me wrong, I'm willing to risk my life for my survival… but this? This is a treasure hunt! A treasure hunt of no worth to anyone… other than you, our resident human. I question the logistical investment in such a venture.”

Scar spoke up next. “I hate to agree with her, Stuart, but she’s right; I’m stretched pretty thin as it is…”

I held a hand up. “Point taken. This needs to be a surgical approach; I couldn’t and wouldn’t ask our militia to accompany me on these missions. In fact, I only need three ponies…”

I pointed each to Stopper, Tricks, and Ace. “I know I can trust each of you with my life, as I hope you trust me with yours. I’ve seen your skills out there, and I know that, together, we’d make a formidable infiltration team.”

I then turned to Scar. “Your race’s entire history is under threat. Locked away, out there, are fragments of your past; pegasi, unicorn, and earth pony alike. There are potentially even artifacts out there that can help stop this land from rotting beneath you…”

I then turned to Flame. “We spoke about this; Your land is steadily losing its ability to sustain life… for what reason, I don’t know, but inaction is just waiting around for things to get worse…”

Turning my attention to Stopper, I grabbed the crystal, holding it in my hand. “There is so much more at stake than these crystals; finding them could very well lead to uncovering much more important artifacts. I'm not content with just sitting back and doing nothing while things steadily get bleaker outside. Don't you see, Stopper? Assisting me with this is your survival!”

I exhaled sharply and once again pocketed the crystal, but it was Scar who broke the uneasy silence that had now descended upon us.

“... He's right. After our former commander perished, I inherited his paperwork. He estimated that if something wasn't done… We have about a decade left. He thought that by combining our numbers with other settlements, no matter the cost or the price he'd ask us all to pay, we'd become big enough to be immune to whatever is coming.”

I shook my head. “Numbers mean nothing if the land is losing its vitality. Is it happening across what's left of Equestria, or is it local to here?” I asked.

Flame shrugged. “We've had no way to know without access to magic… wait! You could take magical readings of new locations! That should tell a lot more about what's happening!” She said, not quite happily, but pleased enough that she might finally get some answers on this sore subject.

I pointed to the map on the table. “And that, ladies and gentlemen… er, I suppose ‘mares and gentlestallions’ is the appropriate translation there, right? Anyway, mares and gentlestallions, that leads to the next item of business… other locations of interest.” I said pointing at nearly the dead center of the map. “The annotation here says ‘Canterlot’... what was it, what is it now, and does it hold anything of interest?”

Tricks raised a roof, and I acquiesced with a nod. “Canterlot was Equestria’s capital. But, by all accounts, it’s been abandoned, and there’s a magical shield of immense power around it.”

I stroked my developing beard with a hand. “Is that shield to keep ponies out, or to keep something else locked away within?”

Silence once again filled the room, everypony looking between themselves. I got my answer. “So… nopony knows. That’s still good to know; either way, going straight in or straight over seems like a bad idea… so that leaves going under. Tricks, have there ever been stories or rumors of ponies trying to gain access to Canterlot from below?” I queried.

Tricks scratched his chin for a moment. “Ponies, no… but griffons? Yes!” He exclaimed. “You know that gemstone I had on me? We confiscated it from a pair of griffons who bragged that they'd stolen it from Canterlot. I thought that they were lying… but after what you've just said, maybe they weren’t lying after all…”

Nodding, I turned to Flame briefly before turning my attention back to the group. “So… that puts Canterlot in the ‘Maybe’ list. Canterlot seems to be due south from here, and reasonably close, too. Next, to our north… the Crystal Empire. What do we know about it?

“We sent two scouts there last year. Neither returned.” Said Scar. “Either the snow and ice got them, the remains of the empire did, or they met a grisly end on the way. As far as I'm concerned, that whole region is a no-go.”

“Noted.” I continued. “What about east of here? There are… three dwellings shown here; Manehatton, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare. Have you tried re-establishing contact with them?”

I’d love to know why this place is full of horse puns, but I doubt I'll get an answer there.

Scar nodded. “Our scouts reported that all three locations were deserted… but while Manehattan seems to still be mostly intact, nothing at all seems to remain of either Baltimare or Fillydelphia. However, as of a month ago, we now know there are some griffon squatters in Manehattan, no doubt trying to strip the city of anything that's not been nailed down.“

I hmm’d to myself. “Useful to know. Maybe Manehatton contains some things of interest, in which case, that’s going into my ‘Maybe’ list… and if we do end up going there, we go armed.”

I now cast my eyes to the other side of the map. “So, on the western side, I see a few places that look interesting… uh, Vanhoover, Las Pegasus, and… Tartarus; let’s go with those, what do we know?”

Ace spoke up this time. “Vanhoover is like Manehattan, deserted as far as we can tell. Las Pegasus is a bit too far for us to have scouted, even if we were to take advantage of the old abandoned railroad system. The same’s technically true for Tartarus… although I’d never go near that place.”

I think I know why.

“I’ve heard you use the name in somewhat negative tones. I take it that it’s some sort of hostile land?” I queried.

“Sort of,” replied Scar. “It’s where many of Equestria’s most dangerous prisoners were banished to. If there’s one place in Equestria I’d avoid at all costs, it’d be that one.”

Pandora’s Box, in a sense.

“OK… so, Vanhoover is another ‘Maybe’ candidate. Now for Central Equestria… seeing as Alex has already mentioned Ponyville, I think that’s going in my ‘Likely’ column. Do we have any intel on conditions there?”

“I, um… I may know some ponies there…” said Flame, eliciting horrified looks from Scar and Ace.

“This is the first I’ve heard about this!” said Scar, in quite an annoyed tone. “How could you not disclose something like that?!”

The earth pony sighed. “They’re… my cousins. They just wanted to be left alone… so, they occupied the old farmhouse to the south. For the last five years, I’ve seen them every few months or so… they give me soil readings to compare with ours.”

I understood Flame's hesitance… I knew that she was the type of pony who would go to great lengths to protect her family, as I would have for mine. I might’ve made a similar call in her place.

“What’s done is done, there’s no point dwelling on it now; on the bright side, this gives us some additional options. Flame, how amicable would they be to visitors like… well, us, but more especially, me?” I asked, extremely interested in potentially having an ally or two down south.

Flame looked around, and then down at the table. “They wouldn’t have a problem with the ponies sitting around this table… but you, Stuart? You might take a little convincing… nothing I can’t take care of, though,” she said, looking up at me with a small smile. “Conditions there are like ours here… only with more ruins.”

“Okay, that makes me feel a lot better about an expedition there,” I added. “Now I just need a way to find the rest of those crystals; each of them is emitting a signal that I and likely everypony here can't feel, see, or hear…”

I reached into my pocket to grab the crystal again, avoiding triggering the message while rolling it around in my palm.

I let my mind drift back a bit to the first time I viewed the message and the odd sensation I felt. I remember some unknown force pulling on me like it was trying to tear me apart in every direction. I didn't and still don't know what to make of it, and it happened each time I re-watched it.

I needed some time in solitude… or at least in a quiet room to focus for a bit…

I may even try that meditation thing that so many people seemed to swear by.

I rose to my feet and shuffled behind my chair. “Thank you all for your time today, but I think I need some alone time to clear my thoughts for a bit. Crush, I’ll meet with you later, I have an idea to run by you in any case. The rest of you I’ll catch up with later.”

Without sticking around, I headed straight upstairs to my bedroom on the second floor, still clutching the yellow crystal. After entering the room I just stood in the middle of it, not really sure of what I was supposed to focus on.

I brought the crystal up to eye level, trying to peer within its sparkling layers when something made me jump a bit.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

I wasn’t sure who to expect, but I’d still receive them regardless. “Um… come in,” I said, sheepishly.

The door slowly opened, and Ace gingerly made his way inside, his coat brushing against the door as it closed. Seeing as I had a guest, I sat on my bed and gestured for Ace to join me, the pegasus jumping onto a space next to me. I was a little unsure as to why he was here, but his presence was no less welcome. I held up the crystal in front of us both.

“Ace… somewhere inside here is the key to finding other crystals just like it… and I have no idea how to unlock it. How am I supposed to move forward if I can’t even figure this out?” I asked him, somewhat rhetorically.

I could see Ace looking at the crystal briefly before turning to look up at me. “Maybe you just need a moment of clarity… y’know, like clearing your mind.” He encouraged me, leading me back to my earlier thoughts of meditation.

“Yeah, I was thinking about that earlier. Maybe if I just sit very still, and shut out all distractions, I might be able to concentrate enough when I next view the message.” I reasoned, now rolling the crystal around in my hand.

“I, uh… h-had another idea for that…” he stammered as he got off the bed and started immediately sticking his nose in my crotch, the pegasus taking an audible sniff to the point where I could feel the air moving through my trunks.

Somepony knows what they want…

I put my hands on Ace’s head, inching him back from the fabric of my jeans. “I almost forgot… we never got to finish this bit did-?”

I was interrupted by the stallion evading my hands completely to suddenly kiss me, pressing his lips against mine in an unexpected but not unwelcome addition to my day.

Passing one hand around him to stroke his back, my other slipped behind his head, pressing it more forcefully against me as we locked lips with one another, my tongue meeting little resistance as I explored the pegasus’ mouth to my extreme satisfaction.

You know how to make someone feel wanted, I'll give you that…

After a short while of exchanging gratuitous amounts of bodily fluids, we both came up for air, Ace using the downtime to press his nose once more into my groin, this time meeting something significantly harder than before.

I used my hands to guide his gaze to mine as I found myself once again lost in those azure orbs, our noses touching as he steadied himself by planting his hooves on my thighs. “You don't have to do this, you know…” I whispered to him as my thumbs brushed against his cheeks.

“But I want to…” he whispered back. “You've done so much for us… for me… I want to do this. U-Unless you d-don't want me here…” he said softly, his voice quaking lightly as those words broke free of his lips.

I immediately pulled him into the biggest hug I could muster as I held his head tightly against my chest. “I don't ever want to hear that again... not from you, and not from anypony else here…”

I sighed as I rested against him. I really didn't expect today to turn into something lewd, but I was starting to come around to the idea of Ace giving me some genuine help with my current problem.

I got up and fastened the bolt on the door… if something was going to happen here, it was going to happen without any interruptions. As I returned to Ace, I started removing all of the articles of clothing I was wearing, the pegasus paying rapt attention as I rendered myself stark bollock naked in front of him. Although he tried to steal a cheeky lick from my raging boner, I wagged my finger briefly at him in a silent conveying of ‘not yet’.

Moving across to the other side of the bed, which Flame had very kindly arranged as a double bed, I lay down on the soft linen, causing Ace to turn to keep track of me as I continued to grasp the crystal.

“Well… here I am. Do you… want to come over here and play?” I offered, slightly widening my legs.

The pegasus approached me cautiously, and after a moment, he was close enough for me to feel the hot breath from his snout against my bare chest.

In a bit of an unexpected move, he went straight for one of my armpits. I honestly don’t know what he was getting out of that, but if his pulsating erection was anything to go by, he was definitely enjoying my odor.

Taking a step back, he began to eye up his real target; it was most assuredly stiff and utterly ready for him to give it some attention, which came far sooner than I was expecting as he darted quickly to smother my rod with his lips, teasing me playfully as he ran his tongue across its head while he did so. In no time at all, he had fully hilted me, and I could feel hot, shallow breaths against my pubic hair.

Having not been desensitized first, the sensations this time around were so, so much more enjoyable with Ace, his eager tongue-lashing sending shivers up my spine as my free hand gently applied pressure to the back of his head, willing him on as the seal of his lips sent ripples of pleasure back to my brain as he started to slowly ascend and descend my shaft.

“Argh!” I moaned repeatedly, for I couldn't help but give voice to the tender pleasuring the pegasus was bestowing upon me; while he may have lacked experience, he more than compensated for it with ample enthusiasm, his increasing tempo making it clear he wanted what had been denied to him previously.

I wasn’t going to be able to hold out for much longer and I felt the point of no return approaching, but unlike last week, I had no need to force self-control upon myself or Ace, and he was about to receive payment in kind for his help.

“Nearly… there… Grrrrukh!” I half-grunted as I felt my release wash over me, the pegasus receiving a week’s worth of frustration into his mouth that, judging from his continued ministrations, he was happily sending down his throat even as his tongue continued to scoop up any further spurts late to the party.

At the apex of that wave of pleasure crashing into me, I tapped into the crystal still in my grasp, once again finding myself in the now-familiar all-encompassing milky whiteness that seemed to stretch on forever.

The sensations returned, and I once again felt multiple tendrils of force vying for control over me. With my mind now clear of all petty concerns, I focused on one particular application of force, letting that force alone manipulate me within this mental mindscape.

After a while, I could tell that the force was pulling on me with a rhythm, a steady pattern of tugging that seemed to be urging me toward it.

I mentally reorientated myself and attempted to repeat this distillation of focus with another tendril trying to pull me in another direction.

Soon, with enough patience, I once again felt the new force refine itself into the same rhythmic pulse as it also tried to draw me closer.

Mentally breaking my connection to the crystal, I brought myself back to the real world, a curious Ace now standing over me with an intrigued expression. “A-Are you okay, Stuart?” he asked, putting a hoof on my chest.

Nodding, I held the crystal up in front of us. “Thanks to you, I think I've found a way to find more of these. But, that’s a topic for later… I think somepony in the meantime needs some attention…” I said, my eyes drawing themselves to the throbbing erection attached to Ace’s undercarriage as I put the crystal on a side cabinet next to the bed.

With the element of surprise on my side, I tackled Ace from the side, and whumf’d him onto his back, his expression changing into one of mild shock as his underside became fully exposed to me.

The least I could do was pay him back; I reached forward to grasp his twitching shaft, the head rather noticeably gleaming in the light from above due to the copious amount of precum that had already leaked from the tip.

My hand slowly started to pump up and down the fleshy length as Ace let out small, adorable moans, his entire body becoming an instrument that I was finely plucking to my chosen tune.

Unable to resist temptation, I sank my head down to run my tongue across the tip, once again savoring the stallion’s taste as my hand continued its single-minded focus of voiding the contents of his testicles.

With his now-familiar slightly salty musk soaking my tastebuds, I abandoned my sampling of his cock and raised myself slightly to connect our lips once more; our combined tastes mingled together as one while our tongues danced harmoniously together.

After a few moments of frantic and passionate tongue-hockey, our kiss broke as the stallions' breathing quickened. “Almost… almosssst…” he whispered, letting me know that he was about to cum very soon.

The now-familiar twitching of his stallionhood began, the ebony flesh announcing that Mount Pegasus was about to blow imminently and blow hard.

Deciding on the easiest approach, I swiftly dived to envelop his cocktip with my lips, fully prepared for the oncoming tsunami of ejaculate that was about to hit my senses as my other hand gently cupped his scrotum, feeling the stallion's flesh contract in preparation for the onslaught about to crash over him.

Ace’s muscles tensed and he could no longer hold back the wave of pleasure about to overtake him, and he gave a final heaving moan of release as the first spurts of stallion seed sprayed from his shaft’s tip into my waiting mouth.

“Aaah… aaah… grrrrrraaaaahhhhh!” He screamed as truly excessive quantities of pony spunk made their way down my throat while my lips suckled hard on the head, determined to drain the pegasus dry of all he had to give.

Once his ejaculation had died down to a weak dribble, I pulled myself off his receding member and once more pressed my lips to his in yet another intimate showing of affection, only this time with a little gift for him.

As our mouths opened to one another, I passed a wad of Ace's semen into his mouth, using my tongue to spread his taste to every nook and cranny within as my hand caressed his stomach, the white fur feeling warm to my touch as our noses pressed against each other’s during his post-orgasmic bliss.

Eventually, our kiss came to an end as a thin strand of saliva insisted on us remaining together; slowly, I laid myself down on the bed next to him, embracing him in a cuddle from the side, my arms reaching around his back and across his chest to pull myself tightly toward him. For several minutes we lay aside one another as I embraced his body heat. Finally, Ace broke the silence between us.

“So, uh… w-what move was that again?” he asked, no doubt referring to the little gift I’d given him.

“Just something I picked up… did you enjoy it?” I asked, only now realizing that I should probably have been a little more upfront with asking first. The pegasus merely nodded.

“Yeah! It was, um… k-kinda hot…” he stammered, as he turned his head to look at the crystal I’d left on the side. “I wish I could see the message in that thing, it seems really important to you…”

I sighed softly. “This message is just a breadcrumb trail… the messages afterward will be much more valuable. But, to everypony else, what we find on the way will likely be much more useful. That reminds me…” I said as I practically lept off of the bed to start putting my clothes back on.

After very quickly making myself presentable to the outside world (not that I thought they’d particularly care about another naked creature walking around), I took the crystal from the bedside cabinet and beckoned for Ace to follow me as we both descended the stairs, once again coming across the unicorns still neck-deep in cataloging work.

“Remind me to teach you a soundproofing spell, sounds from upstairs can very much be heard down here,” said Stopper as Tricks looked at myself and Ace with a sly grin.

“I didn’t know I had an audience. If you wanted to watch, you could’ve said something…” I jested to the mare who met me with an icy glare. But, before she could protest with a response, I started rummaging through the crystal stash we had, eventually finding two blue crystals similar in their cut appearance to the Mnemosyne Crystal I was already carrying. Taking care to stash the crystals in separate pockets on my person, I also fished out the Tear of the Moon, its regenerative abilities being the key to my next idea.

After taking the time to deduct the items I’d taken from the official inventory roster, I headed out, Ace in tow, to first collect my laptop and then head to Crush’s smithing station to see if he would see me earlier.

Arriving with my laptop already displaying what I needed it to, Crush immediately beckoned us both into his sanctum, and I sat with him at the workstation I’d used earlier to adorn my hands with the fragments of a unicorn’s horn as Ace sat to my side. Setting my backpack down, I laid out the two blue crystals and the Tear of the Moon in front of Crush and then put the laptop to the side with the screen facing the earth pony as it displayed a picture of a pistol.

“Crush, this is the curse of my species,” I began, “We’re capable of seeing an idea and immediately thinking of a violent application for it. Now, I loathe violence, especially when it’s needless or cruel… but I know that the world outside doesn’t have the same qualms about it as I do, so… based on what I’ve read, I think that this idea will be a decent, long-range but ultimately non-lethal weapon for me to use.”

I pointed to the two blue crystals. “The first tome said that blue crystals hold magic strongly linked to illusion and the trickery of reality… and that any raw magic released from them would be the least-lethal of the known crystal colors.”

I then pointed to the Tear of the Moon. “This little gem constantly recharges through a mechanism we don’t understand, and it transfers its stored energy to another crystal upon contact.”

I then arranged the crystals differently, placing the first blue crystal on my left, with the Tear of the Moon beneath it, and then placing the other blue crystal to my right, to the side of the first one.

“According to magical theory, when a crystal is struck by another, the stored energy is released in the inverse direction of the strike. Take a look at the weapon on the screen here.” I directed, as my fingers gestured to the contours of the sleek nine-millimeter instrument of death I’d chosen to illustrate my request. “This is called a ‘handgun’, and it fires small bullets of metal driven by a chemically-explosive reaction in the rear,” I said, resisting the urge to laugh as I pointed my finger further down. “The trigger is here, which causes the firing chamber to be struck by a flat metal surface. That impact causes a gunpowder charge in the bullet to detonate, the power of which forces a metal pellet out at extremely high speed, through the barrel, and towards its target.”

Crush looked at me in a little bit of disbelief. “I didn’t know your species was so… violent.”

I shrugged. “This isn’t even close to the violence my species is capable of. Here’s how I envisaged this working…” I said as I lifted the first crystal on the left. “This should be sanded or filed down at one end so that it’s flat. The second crystal should have a piece cut off the front, pointy on one side with a flat end. The flat end of the first crystal needs to be struck by the flat end of the severed piece of the second, which should cause at least some of the energy stored in the first crystal to be released from the opposite end.”

Crush looked at the image on the laptop before turning to me as he nodded slowly. I exhaled sharply as I then reached over to shut down the laptop to conserve battery power, before putting it back into the backpack. Sitting down once more, I pointed to the smaller gemstone on the table. “This stone needs to be in contact at all times with the first crystal to keep charging it with energy; that’ll serve as this weapon’s ammunition.”

Crush pursed his lips for a moment as he stroked his chin with a hoof. “I’m going to need to draft in everypony I know to lend some expertise, this is going to need some mighty fine craftsmanship to pull off. I was working on a ranged weapon for you, but whatever I thought of making never seemed quite right with your new magic… so, instead, I want you to have something that’s already been made…” he said, reaching down to pull out a long, wooden box that he deposited on the table with a hard thunk before using a hoof to push it toward me.

Understanding the gesture, I grabbed the box to pull it closer, unhooking the clasp on the side and opening the box along its lengthwise edge. Inside the velvet lining was a sword that shined in a shimmering silvery reflection of the light from above, decorated with numerous insignia across both sides of the blade; the hilt jutted out either side, giving this away as a Bastard Sword, but what was most notable about it was the large hole in the hilt that made the whole fitting look like a grip.

“That is a sword formerly used by the Royal Guard of Canterlot,” Crush said, pointing to the bottom of the sword. “The grip you can see in the hilt was designed to make the sword able to be wielded by hoof, or by magic, meaning that unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies alike could use it. It’s strong and lightweight, and I think you’d have no problem swinging it with those hands of yours until I can fix up this weapon request for you.”

With great care, I ran my fingers through the hole, accentuated as it was by a lining of leather; I then stood up to raise the sword into the air to my side, opposite of the side that Ace was sitting, looking curiously up at me as I moved the sword through the air in small, uncertain movements.

As I continued to move the blade, I got a feel for the balanced weight of it against my movements, my mind mentally running through how I might best use it, which was something that I was sure Crush would be keen to help with. I then sat back down again, carefully depositing the sword into its box.

“Crush…” I started, the words struggling to leave my lips. “...I don’t know what I did to deserve the generosity you’ve all shown me, but I promise you… in fact, I make this promise to you both…” I said, looking over at Ace briefly, “... that I will not let this gesture go to waste.” The earth pony smiled and wiped a small tear from his eye in a movement that he did his best to obscure.

“I have every confidence that you’ll use this weapon with honor… or, if it comes to it, with measured and proportional violence. If you ever find the blade on that thing dulling, you can always bring it here for me to sharpen. Here, you’ll also need this…” he said, taking another item from beneath the workstation and hoofing it to me. “You’ll need this sheath to store your weapon while you’re not using it, otherwise it’ll cut you or somepony else by accident, and when you’re far from here, that’s the last thing you want to happen.

I nodded solemnly. “I will treasure this until the day I die. Thank you, Crush… would you mind keeping it here for a bit… and maybe giving it a final sharpening for good luck?”

The green-furred earth pony laughed heartily. “I can do that, sure. Come back when you need it, and it’ll be here waiting for you,” he said with a wink.

Nodding my acceptance, I reached out with a hand in a gesture that Crush had long since become used to, an outstretched hoof now grasped by myself in a brief but firm hand-hoof-shake.

As Ace and I left Crush to resume his other tasks, I headed for the barracks with my backpack once again on my person, Ace following dutifully beside me. “Say, Ace… how good is your orientation for what lies beyond here?” I asked him, wondering if there was an easy way to get my bearings relative to the outside world.

“Uh… I’d probably ask for a second opinion, just in case I’m wrong.” he offered.

“Fine, let’s go ask Scar if she’s available for something,” I said, hoping she was in her usual chair… which she was not; the barracks itself had several other ponies in it, but there was no sign of Scar at all.

As we exited the structure, I looked around for the brown pegasus as the alabaster one to my side did the same, neither of us having any immediate success in locating her.

In the periphery of my vision, I saw something in the sky, a naturally-honed predisposition from a former citizen of a world with aviation. Tapping Ace on his withers, he turned his attention to me as I pointed to the sky.

As the pegasus held a hoof above his eyes to block out some of the excess light from the open skies, a horn sounded in the distance, causing Ace to immediately turn his ears in rapt attention.

“Griffons!” he shouted. “It's another raid!”

Pushing me into the barracks forcefully, he immediately went to suit up, leaving time for me to get some much-needed answers.

“What happens during a raid?” I asked as Ace donned his helmet.

“They attack with explosives dropped from the sky… that tower you helped rebuild? That was destroyed only last year.” He said, selecting a spear from a nearby rack.

“... How close do they have to get to drop a bomb?” I queried, gears in my head turning.

Nearing the door, Ace turned to me. “Uh… pretty close to be sure of hitting a target. Why?” he asked.

I grabbed a spear of my own from the rack, the obsidian tip more than capable of doing what I was intending. “Because I’m about to upset the balance of power around here. If you were a griffon, what target would you pick?” I queried.

The pegasus thought for a moment.

“The tower!” he blurted out, and both of us made a run to the tall structure, my body now regretting the extra weight of my backpack as we huffed and puffed to our intended destination.

“How many casualties have you guys managed to inflict on them during these attacks?” I inquired, fearing the answer.

“None in the last year” Ace replied, in a tone of voice that told me he was bitterly annoyed at that number.

No wonder they’re attacking with impurity, you’re at a massive disadvantage here!

Looking up at the sky, I could see a figure approaching us in the distance as I tried to judge the best potential spot to launch something from as an explosion in the distance forced me to think fast about what I was about to do next.

I judged the ground as being a bad choice for making a stand; instead, I entered the tower and vaulted up the stairs to the second floor, with my spear in hand, practically launching myself up the ladder to the right of the door to my room.

The hatch to the roof opened easily, and I soon found myself on the blue-tiled roof, a flat circle going all around the circumference to enable someone to do what I was about to attempt.

I spied my target, and it became immediately obvious they'd spotted me; their aerial speed increased considerably as I steeled my resolve to give myself the best possible chance of success.

“Levenesis!” I shouted, the spear immediately becoming ensnared in my magical grasp as I waited for the right moment to strike.

I pitied the poor sap, who was unaware of what was about to happen, but I had been put in a desperate situation, and I had no option but to use violence, as regrettable as it was.

Mentally willing the spear to advance, the slender weapon sailed into the sky as a deadly missile, and directly into the flight path of my approaching mark at an extreme speed that I privately estimated to be similar to that of a bullet fired from a gun.

The griffon stood no chance, and by the time they realized what was happening, they were unable to avoid the impact of the blade; a loud shriek then filled the skies as my feathered victim dropped like a stone to the grassy ground below, not far from the entrance to the tower.

In less than a minute, what had previously been a creature soaring through the sky had been reduced to a crumpled heap on the ground in what was a very nasty landing.

The ordinance they'd been carrying had become separated from them, and it too impacted the ground several meters away from the downed combatant, causing a large explosion that scorched the exposed grass caught inside the fireball that, thankfully, was nowhere near either life or property.

Taking no chances, I raced back down to ground level and, after giving Ace a nod, he and I grabbed the feline hindlegs of the injured creature and dragged them into the tower, our unfortunate prisoner being in no fit state to offer any meaningful resistance to their capture.

The two unicorns were understandably shocked to see me and Ace manhandling a griffon across the threshold but they had enough sense to give us enough room to prop them up against a wall.

The spear was lodged in their left side, the obsidian blade having partially sunk into their chest as the griffon’s breathing was getting shallower and shallower; precious time ticked away as every breath of theirs became a battle in its own right for them to conquer.

The griffon started to cough as blood splashed on my jeans, the creature struggling to hold off their appointment with the Grim Reaper as labored gurgling sounds echoed around the room.

Making the call, I rose to my feet fully and steadied myself against the stone floor as I gripped the bloodied spear with both hands.

In a short, sharp application of vertical force, the spear was freed from the griffon, which was then followed by a much worse flow of blood from the wound; I estimated that, if there was no further intervention, they would bleed out… and all over my nice clean floor, too.

If the griffon had been killed by the impact of the spear, that would've been a different story… but this one was still alive, and inaction on my part would condemn them to death.

Murder; to do nothing here is to murder someone. Are you a murderer, Stuart?

I was torn… torn between sending a message to our would-be attackers that they were no longer invincible in the sky, and my innate disgust at being responsible for another being losing their life, even if it was borne out of an act of self-defense.

I silently cursed the heavens above at being made to decide between the two choices, and I opted for the honorable one to alleviate this griffon’s pain; kneeling on the blood-soaked stonework, I put my hand on the griffon’s chest, my fingers being stained red by the blood pumping from the open wound as I prepared to cast the spell.

“Cure!” I shouted into the room as the regenerative magic flowed from my hand into our prisoner, the wound visibly closing before my eyes as the griffon's expression contorted in pain while the spell did its job.

I was then struck by an extremely painful burning sensation across my back as I continued to channel the spell, only ceasing the channeling of the spell when the wound had fully sealed. As my bloodstained hand decoupled from the creature's torso, the burning sensation across my back lessened but did not disappear completely, and I knew that that would be something I'd have to attend to later.

The griffon slowly regained consciousness, and in response, I immediately thrusted the spear in front of their face to make it exceedingly obvious that they were not in control of this situation.

With our captive offering a silent understanding of the reality of their situation, I turned to my pegasus friend. “Ace, take a peek out the door and see if we have any company.”

The private complied and took a brief peek outside before reporting back. “Four of them, about twenty meters from the door.”

With my spear still in hand, I moved towards the door. “Everypony, stay inside; that’s an order.” Ace wasn’t happy about it, but I waved a finger at him before he could even begin to protest. “I’m your superior officer; your safety is mine to safeguard,” I said, addressing all present, before turning to our new prisoner. “You especially should stay put if you want to demonstrate that you have something bigger than a sparrow’s brain in that head of yours.”

Not even waiting for a reply, I barged the door open and made my way outside, the sun’s rays casting my shadow across the ground as I walked out onto the soft grassland. It was eerily silent, and I could see nopony else around; in fact, my only company out here was the four griffons taking up positions not far up ahead.

Coming to a stop about ten meters from them, I sat the wooden shaft of the spear down on the ground with the bloodied obsidian tip pointing toward the sky, giving my quarry ahead the opportunity to size me up, in what I hoped wouldn't turn out to be a misplaced gesture of respect.

Their body was utterly fascinating; the torso and lower body of a lion, with the head, wings and upper body akin to that of a large bird, analogous to an Earth eagle. Their partially-obscured facial feathers and beaks each bore colored markings, and they wore simple, loose-fitting clothing with very obvious straps for ordinance around their chests.

One of them stepped forward, their talons digging into the earth as they approached me, taking up a final position about two meters away from me.

With a no-doubt-practiced ease, they removed their helmet that was adorned with a spike on top, letting their full facial plumage mingle with the soft breeze flowing through our stand-off.

Let’s start as we mean to continue, eh Stuart?

I locked eyes with the griffon before me. “My name is Stuart Robinson, and I am the one responsible for gravely wounding your colleague.” I started, shifting my weight slightly to favor my right side as I continued to hold the spear to my left, going next for the obvious question.

“Who are you, and why are you attacking this settlement?” I proceeded to ask with a calm and measured restraint to my tone of voice.

“My name ist Stormborn Titanus, captain of ze eighty-sixth aerial assault squadron, and you ask a curious qvestion indeed,” the male voice began. “In vawr, vone attacks vone’s enemies, do zhey not?” he countered, his vocal inflections carrying an accent not too dissimilar to what I would expect from a German.

If there's a war still going on here, I need to know more…

“I know nothing of what these ponies have done that could possibly justify what you have done here today,” I said, trying to bait out of them a justification for attacking this place as I resisted both the urge to wince at my sore back repeating its insistence to be seen to and the urge to collapse onto the ground in a giggling fit, a product of my juvenile sense of humor at hearing the griffon's name.

The griffon audibly sighed and rolled his eyes. “Not zhat zhat matters; ve did what ve came here to do, and zhat was to make sure zhat you can never attack us again!” he practically squawked at me while pointing at me with one of his talons.

Now I was curious. “Who attacked you… and when, for that matter?” I attempted to press.

The griffon in front of me waved a claw dismissively at me. “Some air balloons flew over ze Griffon Kingdom decades ago, coming from Eqvestria’s direction. Zhey unloaded zheir cargo from above our capital city, a number of mana bombs zhat inflicted severe casualties on its population, killing adults und cubs alike. As per our doctrine, ve've been launching retaliatory strikes ever since on vhatever pony encampments ve can find.”

“Look around you, Stormborn Titanus… does it look like this kingdom has a functional government anymore?” I said, gesturing with my hands to the settlement around us. “You’re waging a war against something that no longer exists! I doubt that the ones who attacked you are even still around!” I reasoned in an exasperated tone.

The griffon’s beak glistened in the sunlight from above as his expression switched to a forlorn one. “... Ve vere just protecting ourselves. If you give us back our comrade, ve vill leave and-”

I stopped him by raising a pointed finger. “I offer you a counter-proposal, Captain: I will return your colleague to you, and in exchange, your squadron will accept our hospitality.”

Captain Titanus was a little taken aback by the suggestion. “... How can ve be sure zhat ve vill be safe here?” he asked, and not unreasonably in my opinion.

I didn’t move, but still I gave the order. “Ace! Get your flank out here and bring the prisoner!” I shouted.

After a few moments, the door opened behind me, but I chose to keep looking forward until both the pegasus and the injured griffon were beside me. Nodding to Ace, he gave our now former prisoner an encouraging push with a hoof, and she slowly made her way across the de facto divide to rejoin her squadron.

I lowered the spear and provided it to the pegasus, who out of instinct wielded it as normal, keeping it pointed at our new guests until I nudged it with a foot, causing Ace to realize his faux pas and correct it as he put the spear down onto the ground while I crossed my arms.

“I've demonstrated today that you no longer have air superiority over the skies here.” I said as I stared at the Captain. “I could have let her die back there, but I chose not to let that happen. I could kill you right now, in fact, but I choose not to do that. You have my word that no harm will come to you here.”

Taking a few steps forward, I kneeled in front of the griffon, and extended my right arm.

In a surprising olive branch given the carnage raining from the skies not minutes earlier, he outstretched his right claw, and our limbs met in a cordial but firm hand-claw-shake.

Sharing a nod of understanding with our new guest, I got up and then turned to Ace. “Go find Scar and Flame; tell them that we have some guests to cater to this evening.”

Ace nodded after a brief hesitation, and he then sped off into the distance as our new guests reconvened in private for a hushed yet verbally passionate confab over their new situation.

Guess who’s coming to dinner?