The following morning, everyone hopped into their respective wagons, and we were on our way again. Blaze and Murk were snuggled up, Shining Armor and Chrysalis… were cuddling. That’s a bit odd. Cadance was laying practically on top of me while Cozy sat in her own little corner. As it turns out, Cadance was very warm. One of the next places on our list of places to visit was Manehattan, which was just on the way up to Griffonia and it would be our last pit stop before we reached the border and one of the closest cities to the Equestrian border, Ravenfield. From there, most of the traveling was a bit of a blur that day.

The lush, green savannahs that made up the Badlands slowly gave way to the rolling hills and blue skies of Equestrian woodlands. The road was long, but we were markedly back in Equestrian territory. Seeing as we were back along the giant sea that should’ve been where Ohio was, we did get to a nice view of the beachfront, and we kept traveling up it for two reasons: To see the sights, and so we’d have one less side that we can actually get attacked from. Given that the sea… was the sea, most creatures in the sea shouldn’t be able to just climb on land and eat Rarity or something.

By lunch time, we all had stopped at a bridge that was built over a decent-sized river that fed into the sea that made up the Ohneighian Sea. Yes, that’s the name. Yes, it is stupid. It’s also a mouthful. However, it was a spot to stop and have lunch. Apple Jack offered to cook for the group today, and was going to just cook up on a small little campfire. Then Pinkie hopped off the wagon with several boxes she didn’t have; it was an open back wagon; I could tell she wasn’t storing it anywhere.

Pinkie had put together a full on kitchen, with ingredients and all, by the time we all disembarked from our wagons. She had kibble, mixed with eggs, various vegetables, and meats… Don’t ask how. Anyways, those kibble, egg, veggie and meat mixes were poured into bowls and given to Blaze and Murk, even though they didn’t really need food. She gave them the food anyway. There was a cake, vegan pasta, feck, even hayburgers being cooked in her kitchenette that had aparated out of nothing.

I sat down next to Rainbow, or rather, she sat down next to me. “Say, while we’re waiting for lunch, wanna have that race?” She asked. “Not a flying race, just one on the ground. It should be more fair, since I’ve not seen you fly since our race, mister.” She tapped my wings. “Not exercising those bad boys is gonna make you weaker, and slower, overtime, Ostri.” She was now eying my wings rather closely, she even rubbed a hoof through one of them. “They are soft, the feathers I mean, for a pegasus that flies as fast as you do.” She offered me one of her wings. “See?”

Her wings were rather coarse, but still kinda soft. “And that,” I sat after poking her wings a few times. “As much as I’m touching them. Back when life was old, touching a pegasus’s wings was basically like touching their private parts without consent. It may be different since we both kinda consented,” as in I let Rainbow touch mine since I knew she wasn’t interested in me like that. Or stallions. Rainbow, shocker, is gay.

“Eh, it’s sorta the same still, except friends can touch our wings… most of the time.” Rainbow shrugged. “So a leg race?”

“Mmm,” I got up and shook myself to rid myself of the sleepy feeling I was developing from laying in a wagon all day. “Alright,” I stretched and started walking with Rainbow Dash to her friends’ wagon, which would be our starting line. I found a lone tree that honestly looked fun to be under right now. It was kinda hot, kinda humid. Some shade sounded nice. “Whoever makes it to that tree first?” I asked. I nudged Rainbow, who sat beside me.

“Yeah, that seems fair-”

“And I’ll be joining y’all’s race,” Apple Jack said. “I would try and stay and cook, but it seems that Pinkie,” she gestured to the kitchen, again, that Pinkie had pulled from out of nowhere. Chrysalis was sitting beside her, wearing the cutest outfit I’ve ever seen on her. An apron, a pink, frilly one, with a matching chef hat on her head. One ear was tucked under the hat while the other was hanging just outside of it. She and Pinkie seemed to be going over recipes and Pinkie was showing her how to actually cook. My marefriend listened with great interest; Pinkie seemed to mellow out, for now, enough to actually teach Chrysalis.

“Hold on you two,” I said. I took in the sight for a moment longer. “Okay, I’m ready. I’m just remembering just how lucky of a stallion I am,” I lowered to the ground and got ready to run. “Whenever you two are ready.” We all broke out into a dead sprint towards the tree. Apple Jack came in first, tagging the tree by bucking it to stop herself. Rainbow came running after her, skidding to a stop just as she reached the tree. I ran past the tree and skidded to a stop. I don’t trust my hooves to stop me before hitting the tree. We were all relatively close to each other, each of us being just a foot or two away from Apple Jack.

I stumbled over, as I still didn’t really have good stamina, and flopped over in the grass. I wasn’t tired, no, horses can go for miles as it seems. I just wanted to lay down under the tree. “Fuck.” I wheezed. “I am in awful shape,” I was panting slightly. Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash were too. They didn’t drop in the grass like I did though.

“I think you’re just not used to exerting yourself that often,” Apple Jack nodded. “Honestly, I’m impressed that you kept up with Rainbow Dash at all. We both kinda learnt that I’m faster on the ground than she is, but Rainbow Dash is more accurate with her turns. It’s not common for a pegasus to be as fast as Dash on the ground, let alone be able to keep pace with an earth pony for the most part, even if they will usually get outrun by an earth pony.” She nodded.

Pinkie and Chrysalis had stopped what they were doing. Pinkie whispered something to Chrysalis, who simply nodded, and whispered something back to the party pony. The two of them went back to cooking right afterwards.

Shortly thereafter, we were called over the whole picnic table that Pinkie had on her, for some reason. She might as well be Brock from Pokemon; he always had a table on him for some reason. And a frying pan. Despite being offered to sit at the table, I took my food, which came on a tray, and went and laid in the grass. I just found it to be nicer to be sitting in the grass during weather like this. The sun was… well, being a sun, but it was cloudy enough to keep the sun from being too hot. Though not cloudy enough to block out the clear, blue sky that was always fun to stare up at when you’re contemplating life. There was a nice, gentle, and constant breeze, keeping it nice and cool, but not chilly. It was a wonderful day to just eat in the grass.

“Why’re you laying in the grass, dear?” Rarity asked. “Surely it would be better if you ate at the table, so nothing could get into your food.”

I held my tray in my wings. Wings are a good second set of arms, not really, but for stuff like this, they weren’t too shabby. “Meh, I just think this is more fitting,” I took a bite of what ended up being a calzone. “Pinkie, how did you make this?” I asked. “We don’t have cheese, bread, or anything to make calzones with.”

“Oh, I just picked up some supplies a little while ago, and thought you could use a calzone.” Pinkie waved hers in the air; her mouth was full. She realized that and swallowed whatever was in her mouth without chewing. “Do you like it? I taught your marefriend, who seemed all too willing to learn so she could cook actual food for you, and I figured a calzone would be impressive. That specific one was made by Queenie!”

“Pinkie Pie,” Chrysalis interjected. “Please refrain from calling me Queenie. Anything else will do.”

“Okay, Queenie!” Pinkie said cheerfully.

Chrysalis chose at that point to just ignore Pinkie being silly for the time being. “But how is it? I cooked it with extra love-”

“Chrysalis, c’mere and lemme kiss the chef.” I motioned. “This is delicious. So get yer sexy ass over here and let me kiss you!”

The next few days of traveling went over pretty quickly, mostly because I spent most of it while sleeping on top of Blaze. Seriously, get yourself a kitsune, they are the perfect bed if you’re a horse that’s little. The ocean still has not given way to the rest of Griffonia, but we’re only going this way because Twilight asked us to. Apparently this was the quickest way to get to Griffonia with the highest chance of meeting back up with many of the Equestrian refugees that decided to leave Equestria before the Storm King inevitably assfucks it. This’ll give us the highest possibility of running into Ponyville’s residents that were supposed to be leaving the country.

On the fourth day of heading up to Manehattan, which I was hoping to see, since it was pretty close to an actual city I’ve been wanting to see on Earth, Cozy Glow woke me up from my nap. “Hey Ostri,” the little filly nudged me. “I…” she looked pretty pitiful. Granted, she was originally gonna enslave me or something. “I’ve been meaning to ask you to help me with this,” she undid her mane and some of it fell over her eyes. Just barely some of it fell over her eyes at least. “Can you please help me with this?” Cozy pulled out a pair of mane-cutting scissors. “I borrowed these from Professor Rarity and was hoping that you could trim my mane and tail. They’re getting a little too long.”

“Wouldn’t Rarity or Cadance be better qualified to cut your mane than I?” I asked. “I barely even keep up with my own grooming,” mostly because Murk does it for me. “Why didn’t you just straight up ask Rarity instead of borrowing her scissors that she had for some reason?”

“Well… right now, you’re the closest thing to a parent that I have right now. Unless we go to an actual barber or groomer, typically dams help keep their foals’ manes and fur nice and tidy. You’ve already groomed me before, and brushed my mane, so why not trim it?” She asked.

“Mmm,” I looked at Blaze. “Help me.”

“Cozy,” Blaze started. “While I am a bit apprehensive of your presence, especially with something so sharp, in such proximity to myself or my soulmate, I did decide to give you a fair chance. Ostri is not from Equestria, let alone this planet. In fact, he isn’t really even a pony-”

“So he’s like a changeling? That would explain why that bug likes you so much.”

“I heard that,” Chrysalis said. She was reading through a book that Twilight let us borrow. No, I don’t know where Twilight was keeping a collection of books, but she apparently had some to help her friends kill the passage of time with some good, ol’ fashion literature. “That’s a little racist, Cozy Glow. It’s semi-understandable; ponies are rather xenophobic from my past experiences with them.” She shrugged. “Though I could assist you with your mane as well; I’ve had to pretend to be a foal’s dam for a while. The experience was rather enjoyable.”

“But I want Ostri to do it,” she gave me some nice, big puppy eyes. “Please…” She even tilted her head.

“Why can this actually be the real you? Just a sweet, little filly that wants to be pampered?” I asked.

“What do you mean by that, Ostri? From what I’ve heard, that is Cozy. Just a helpful, cute little filly,” Cadance asked.

“Cozy’s a little psycho, according to Blaze and Murk. I’ve got full trust in both their judgements given how easy it would be for one of them to rip information from anyone’s mind. Like they could guess what your kinks are right now… not guess, I suppose, more like know what your favorite bedroom activities with Shining are, like cuddles.” Cadance blushed for a moment before giggling at that.

“But…” Cozy gave me a pouty, bottom lip. “I’m cute and lovable! I’m not a bad pony-”

“Sure,” I chuckled. “But I’ll bite and trim your mane and tail. You best not bite me, or stab me in the neck later.” I took the scissors from the little filly and sat her in front of me, facing away from me.

“So why do you think Cozy’s a sicko?” Cadance asked. “In your words, not mine.”

“She wanted to use the power of the Kumiho to rule over Equestria or something. Originally it was with the magic of friendship, now it’s Murk. Murk, however, doesn’t trust her.” I shrugged. “I was gonna be enslaved for keeping her from dying of dehydration and heatstroke, though, so that’s cool. Either way,” I cut the first couple inches of Cozy’s mane. She started purring at that, as I continued to work. D’aw, her tail’s wagging while I do this.

“...What the buck?” Shining Armor asked. “Blaze said that?”

“Eeyup, and Blaze don’t fuck around when it comes to my safety or general well-being. She doesn’t lie to me, ever, and fails when she does attempt it.”

“So I hate lying to you with every fiber of my being. Are you going to blame me?” Blaze asked. “Do keep this hush-hush. If everypony blabs about Cozy Glow, it’ll reduce her chances of proving herself to actually be the sweet little filly underneath all that psychoticness. Thus it wouldn’t end well for her; Cozy is well aware of that.” Cozy’s tail stopped wagging for a moment, but resumed when I got the final touches of her mane.

“Am I doing a shitty job?” I asked.

“You’re doing fine,” Cadance sat beside me. “Cozy, do you like Ostri?” She asked.

“I do,” Cozy admitted. “He’s kind of nice, even if he’s a bit wary of me now. Why do you think my final plans involved putting him in a position where he couldn’t get hurt? I’m thankful for what he’s done for me so far, and can be kind in return for kindness; the Cutie Mark Crusaders taught me that.” After I got through her mane, I grabbed her tail and started working on that too, until it didn’t drape down to her ankles. By the time she was done, she was looking in the mirror Chrysalis used, and nodding.

“How has my mate done, little one?” Chrysalis asked. “I would say you look adorable… though I am keeping my eye on you.”

“Pfft, we both know you’re a bit sick in the head too, Queen,” Cozy snarled. “But Ostri did a decent job…” She spun around, hopped up on her hind-hooves and kissed my cheek. “Thank you!” She said cheerfully. She blinked when I didn’t respond. My eyes were set on Chrysalis, who looked a little hurt. “What? She wanted to kill you when she first met you, didn’t she? She’s no better than I am!” How the fuck did she know about that?

“So?” I asked. “I know what she wanted when we first reunited. However, I don’t care. Right now, we love each other, and she won’t hurt me. I’m trusting her with my life, and so far she’s done nothing but show that she's earned that trust. Now,” I growled. “Turn around and apologize to my marefriend. Chrysalis likes ya, kid, no need to be mean. She’s just being cautious, like I am after figuring out you wanted to enslave me.”

Cozy rolled her eyes and groaned out an apology. She got stuck under Murk’s butt for that. It was not a pleasant moment for her.

When we reached Manehattan, since we needed to actually get through Manehattan into Griffin territory, the first thing I noticed were Royal Guards. Not just police, like Manehattan was rumored to have, not like the police that were competent enough to defend the city from the Storm King’s attempts at invading the city. No, actual Solar and Lunar Guards were roaming the streets. All them eyed our wagons as we came through. As it turned out, a horse-drawn carriage with no horse pulling drew attention just as much as the wagon full of national heroes in it.

That didn’t stop me from hopping out my wagon, while it was still moving, and Blaze soon followed. We walked over to one of those little things, where you stuck a coin in it and got a newspaper. It was very old school shit, but I doubt Equestria has the internet when it can barely cart its army to where the army needs to be… Luna is in Manehattan, or at least went to Manehattan, while Celestia stayed behind to defend Canterlot.

Ponyville, the once, kinda thriving little town that mainly sold apples as produce, was a ghost town now, thanks to Cozy Glow getting the whole town to evacuate.

There was still a bounty on my head, from the Storm King, and the Hive, Thorax’s Hive, just announced dropping any relations it had with Equestria due to them mishandling changeling spies, their information too, and lying to the king’s face about a certain pegasus traveling with the old queen. I chuckled at that, and set the newspaper to the side under my wing. I honestly didn’t care about this shit anymore, I just wanted to see how the war was going and… this particular paper had nothing in it. Aside from the Royal Pony Sisters splitting up, which is stupid. The two of them, together, are fairly powerful despite my hatred of them.

Splitting up is a horrible idea, but I suppose having a princess in the only other city that they could defend is a good idea.

“You look…” Twilight giggled. “Your nose was scrunched up while you were reading that,” she kept giggling. “You’re weirdly adorable, Ostri, I hope you know that.”

I snickered. “Me? Adorable? What happened to Princess Twilight and-”

“You’re just experiencing Twilight. I will admit, I’ve always… I wanted a stallion of my own. Before the Friendship Festival, I was genuinely trying to think of a way to ask you out, you know. Then the festival happened, and it turned out that Chrysalis already laid her claim on you. While herds are commonplace in Equestria, I highly doubt that I could convince your marefriend to let me join in on your herd.”

“What brought this all of a sudden?” I asked.

“I think I realize just how much Princess Luna messed up when she broke up with you.”

“Meh, I was a bit of a prick when I started dating Luna. I’d like to think I have grown as a person since then, or at least matured a bit, but being mentally fucked does that to ya,” I shrugged. “Don’t matter though, I’m in a much, much better space than I’ve been in a while.” I leaned into Blaze, who squawked somehow, and started grooming me. “Blaze, I love ya,” I genuinely smiled. Blaze didn’t respond with telepathy, instead, she gave me a dog-esk kiss.

Life is good.

We stopped, got haydogs, hotdogs made of hay, and kept going until we reached Manehattan’s equivalent of Central Park. I patted my kitsune on the nose. “Me and Blaze are gonna walk along the park trail for a few hours, just the two of us.” I announced.

“Why?” Cadance asked. She then ‘O’d. Murk nodded to us, giving his approval that he knew we didn’t actually need. Murk knew about how me and Blaze just wanted to spend some time together; out of everyone here, we've known eachother the longest. It’s been so long since it was just me and Blaze, that he knew the two of us could use some bonding.

“Can I join, too?” Cozy asked.

“No,” Chrysalis said sternly. “You’re staying with me. My coltfriend wishes to have something similar to what he once had back in the day. Also he and his fox demand quality one on one time with each other. We're all going to respect that desire. I believe this will be like traveling through the forest, on hoof, while you go seek out the latest bounty, or finish that next oddjob to get some bits?” Chryssy asked.

“Something like that, yeah.” I nodded.

“I was looking forward to something like this; we’ve not had the chance to camp, just the two of us, as it would slow our escape from Equestria significantly. Ostri and I would get lost in the moment alone. While you all go explore the city for a time, my little pony and I shall have some quality bonding!” She picked me up by the scruff, and gently started trotting down the path. My body started purring while being babied. I love this. I missed this. “Goodbye, everyone! We’ll meet back up with you in a couple hours!”

We stepped into Central Park’s trail and started on our merry little way.

“How likely is it that Luna will either find out we’re here, or bother us while we’re here?” I asked Blaze as we started walking.

“Very likely. However, I doubt there is much we can do about her finding out about our group being in town.” Blaze shrugged. “It is a shame, really. I did like Luna a thousand years ago.”

“I did too,” I nodded. “Well, you know that already.” I shrugged. “It’s a shame too, but…” I nuzzled Blaze. “I’ve got you. I’ll be honest, if it literally weren’t for you…”

“You’d be dead,” Blaze sighed and licked my cheek. “I’m glad to have you again. Murk is a wonderful mate, and Chrysalis, after we stopped her from wanting to kill you, is lovely. Though nothing quite beats just being with you…” I urged Blaze off to the side of the path that was relatively empty. Surprisingly, the road we were walking on was pathed with tar, and they even colored it with yellow and white to mark each side and which direction those sides should go. There were even marks for which side of the city we were on, and we were on the south eastern side.

I stuck my head to the side of Blaze’s belly. “You’re getting taller, y’know,” I noted. “You’re taller than I am, and your torso comes up to Celestia and Chrysalis’s torsos. I’m not complaining, it makes doing this easier,” I patted her belly.

“This is as big as I’ll get. I’m surprised you just now noticed how much larger I am, when back in the day, I was the size of the average pony.”

“Maybe the size of Luna; I remember you carrying me home on some occasions after a hard day of work.” I chuckled. “Your pups are kickin’ around in your belly now.”

“Wonderful… as I said, by the time we reach the border, I should have pups. By then, we should be traveling with the majority of Ponyville’s residents. After that, we should stick with them for a while so that the pups are better protected in a herd, rather than out on the road, alone again. As much as I can defend myself, and my pups, nearly getting my head bitten off by a fire breathing lizard was not fun.” Blaze shivered. “That was terrifying. I hate being preggers purely because of my newfound lack of mobility.” I could hear the silent admittence to the pay off of being preggers. She stretched and ‘accidentally’ got up in my space. “You are so going to love the singular male I have running around in there.”

“You can tell…”

“Yes, I can tell what genders the pups are.” Blaze shrugged. “Are you surprised?”

“No, but like…” I kissed her and my fox froze. “I’m just happy as hell right now.”

“Even with Cozy Glow?”

“I can tell she’s a good kid, just misguided and mentally fucked up.” I admitted. I yawned. “Wanna just lay here on the side and take a nap. The signs say path goers can do that.” Not sleeping in the grass is apparently against pony nature; aside from beds, ponies love sleeping in grass.

“That I would, after we stretch our legs first. We’ve been cooped up in that wagon for far too long.” I couldn’t agree more. I grinned and started trotting beside my best friend. Not even Luna could- oh there is Luna.

Well, there was a Luna. We walked past her and kept going down our little walk.

Author's Note

dw, luna is totally not following where Ostri is going or hiding that by ending up where he ends up.