Author's Note

This chapter concludes act I of the story, and is the start of act II, from here on, things get a bit less peaceful and more scary, there will be more companions too, and soon, very soon, new dungeons, more deadly than before!

Chapter 16 Sylf's unusually uncomfortable morning

We hope this message finds you in good health, young Onyx, this will hopefully give you a clearer idea of your objectives, while you are free to do whatever you wish, we recommend you follow your mission, doing so will benefit you greatly.

The rot upon the world of dreams grows day by day, having been festering for generations from the negative emotions from the countless beings who suffered outside and within Equestria, trapped by a malicious spell.

This emotions, manifested in the dream realm in physical form, but unable to leave it, as they normally would: scary nightmares, harmless ghosts and apparitions, paranormal occurrences, and even fae and other woodland spirits that were often just mischievous or even bulgar, rarely they would manifest as dangerous monsters or this emotions would simply posses placid monsters, making them go into a frenzy and attack ponies, this manifestations were a normal part of life in this world, and usually were harmless or easily dealt with, but after they were sealed, they suddenly could not follow their natural cycle, positive emotions followed the same cycle, and manifested in good ways, but they were not affected by the spell.

This negative emotions, in essence, energy, grow in a limited space, the boundaries of an incomprehensibly strong spell, condensing and mutating horribly, they were a distorted and twisted reflection of the beings who birthed them, other times their forms morphed into aberrations that hurt to look at, some gained their own sentience, and desired to grow and obtain power by absorbing other beings of darkness inside the enclosed space.

Nightmare Moon designed and casted this terrible spell, her hate for her sister and sense of betrayal had caused her, at the height of her power to find a way to get revenge, even if she failed to defeat her sister, and concocted a terrifyingly powerful seal, that would bring doom to the whole world.

The spell was much worse at first, but a desperate last minute modification by Princess Luna, while still trapped inside her mind, went unnoticed before the Nightmare could cast the terrible spell, creating a flaw in it that possibly saved ponies and other creatures from being disconnected from dreams altogether and slowly losing their mind, this allowed ponies and other creatures to still sleep and dream safely, in the upper layers of the Dream World that she managed to keep outside of the spell's reach, and lessened the damage the possible rupture of the spell would cause in realspace.

Nightmare's intent was to make a time bomb, with the negative emotions stuck and growing infinitely inside a perfectly enclosed space, they would reach critical mass eventually and bring an end to the ponies who shunned her, and even her sister would be unable to stop it, she may survive, but she wouldn't be able to save her ponies and would feel what she felt all those years.

Thankfully, the process of growth of the negative energy was slower than she thought, the negative emotions were accumulating too slowly, much slower than when the spell was first cast, as the level of strife and misery inside Equestria had reduced considerably under Celestia's rule, and ponies were the most emotional and magically significant species by sheer number, the large majority of negative energy came from outside Equestria now, and those nations were not as large and full of people.

Princess Celestia herself was responsible for this, the growth of her nation and the stability and safety of the ponies came at the cost of the other rival nations becoming plagued by her unforgiving and harsh policies, she went out of her way to impede progress, place embargos on once rich nations, forced trade deals that benefited her only, under threat of using her control over the sun to ruin their crops or even kill their citizens, market manipulation and even going as military interventions in some areas in the past usually specifically with the purpose of destroying information that may lead progress of other nations, that could in theory surpass her nation.

Under Celestia's rule, Equestria prospered, but she was reluctant to allow her ponies too much creative freedom so she discouraged it in subtle ways.

She told herself she did this all for Equestria, but the world is not just her nation.

The reason you are sent into Dungeons is for your power to grow, by harvesting the accumulated negative emotions that birthed creatures, you in turn, purify them and turn them to energy that fuels your growth, and if you want to face Celestia, and eventually save the rest of nations from her continuous meddling, you need to be stronger than her, and any other who gets in your way.

The Elements of Harmony themselves have stopped responding to her, she does no longer represent any of the virtues, she no longer represents Harmony, without the elements, she can not save her sister from the Nightmare, the evil that controls her mind, and this Nightmare Moon, if left unchecked would bring misery unending to the entire world, you need to help the Elements of harmony find their bearers, you must prevent Celestia from meddling, and help each one become the representation of their virtue, you already know who they are, don't you Onyx?

Make Celestia see the error of her ways, even if you have to force her to see them, help save this world, destroy the negative energy accumulated, make it become your power, and make things right Onyx

I would never forget this dream, I had it when I turned five years old, every word was perfectly clear no matter how many years passed, and it helped really put things into perspective, now I knew what I had to do, Celestia was not really evil, but she was not a good pony either, she was corrupted with power in her sister's absence and went too far in order to make her little ponies live in the pinnacle of safety and comfort.

5 years later, 20 years before Nightmare Moon's return - Onyx's POV

The day was sunny with only a few clouds in the sky, team of pegasi were dispersing after having cleared out most of them, leaving a few for other pegasi to relax and sleep on, it was pretty common for the flying variety of ponies to enjoy clouds as beds, sometimes they even had cloud houses but around Canterlot they weren't allowed for security reasons.

My dreams last night were of what I imagined would happen in the future, would I keep staying and live alongside the ponies? Would I want to go out of the country and try to help other nations with their problems? I dreamt of mother, would she stay with me, to travel and explore if I left, or would she stay in Canterlot as a guard?

I was still unsure why Celestia offered mom a job, did she want to keep her in Canterlot, to gain her loyalty by hiring her as a guard? Maybe so. How would Celestia react if she knew what I could grow in power without limit, what if she found out I could use magic like i did? She would probably lock me away in a cell, to become an experiment and to keep me from fulfilling my destiny.

My dreams were very scary at times, other times they were peaceful, each dream didn't last very long, but what I could recall from that dream was that Celestia wasn't my friend, I needed to get stronger, gather allies, maybe confront her? But I would lose my friends if I did that, the ponies all saw Celestia as a goddess, infallible, it was not a nice thought as I really loved my friends.

That dream, 3 years ago, certainly made me worried about my life here, but I would have time to confront that issue later, I went back to my book, I needed to pay attention if I wanted to learn, magic was a complex subject.

I was laying on my back on a park bench, with a book held above my head, reading about metamagic, it was actually an illegal copy from the restricted section of the Royal Library, during the last five years I had been reading all about runic symbols, spell matrixes, thaumaturgical formulae, components for various rituals and spells, even a bit of enchantment, which was not as restricted but it was still easier to get the better version they used for the guard equipment.

Thanks to mom and that wonderful non restricted book about runes and their meaning, I was able to make my first spell, well make was the wrong word, modify, combine and improve, more like, it works as a magical version of a scanner and a printer, it didn't use ink, instead it used light to lightly burn the characters on the pages, I had to use thick paper sheets who wouldn't burn through when printing from both sides, and binding them using glue, wood and fabrics, since leather was only imported and it would cost much more to get.

After managing to develop that spell, mom spilled the secret she didn't want to tell, that she had the ability to use magic and even gave a demonstration, it raised a lot of questions, and she was studied by mages and scientists, who scanned her and did tests and came to the conclusion she had limited magical abilities and good growth potential, as it is mandatory for all magically able guards, she was given specialized training alongside ver regular training regiment, until she was considered ready to use her powers correctly by the doctrine of the royal guard.

During that time she was thought various combat spells, which of course she taught me as soon as she could, after that four years she was allowed to access the restricted wing of the royal library, were Royal Guards spell casters would go to learn and study restricted books, combat spells, counter spells, detect magic and anti magic, how to combat dark magic, and other topics that weren't available for the general public.

Mom had to go and grab the book she had to copy, then walk to the bathroom and head to an empty stall, go in and close the door, then pull out the blank book I made out of the inventory and place it next to the original, use the spell I had developed and it would start to scan the original book page by page, immediately she had to start to flip the pages of the blank book, each time a page was exposed and laying flat, the spell would instantly 'print' the exact copy of the original book on the right page using a modified light spell, the process was silent, and the air fresheners in the bathroom covered up the slight burnt paper scent. The only thing she had to do was cast the spell and flip the pages of the blank book until the spell was finished, once finished, she would store the blank book in the inventory, and go out and pretend to continue reading or just store the restricted book back in place.

This spell was two spells combined into one, the scanning part that penetrated the book like the spells used by banks were able to go through gold, instead, modified by me to detect ink. I had managed to convince old Sharp Stone to teach it to me, I promised to never show it to anypony, and since the spell was known to most banks, he seemed no harm on showing it to me, it was used to detect scams, so it just prevented business to lose money. The second part of the spell, shined an infrared, high intensity light in the exact same shape and size as the results the scan produced, at the same time.

The light produced was hot enough to scorch the characters without setting the page on fire, a sort of laser engraving, the brain worked as the computer during the spell, so that is why it needed to be cast from a creature, and couldn't be enchanted into a gem easily, not that I knew how to enchant yet at the time I made this spell.

The books of the restricted section had alarms in them, if somepony exited the library with them, they would go off and a locator spell was cast thanks to the runes in the books, they could find the one attempting to take the book, and the book quite easily and fast.

Ponies and... Creatures going into and out of the library were patted down and checked for any items with them, if they had a bag they would check it for any restricted books, even with the alarms in place, somepony could, in theory, smuggle a restricted book outside using an enchanted bag that blocked magic with an anti magic, and invisibility, but the pat downs prevented that, there was another layer of security yet, a unicorn guard that stood at the door and had enchanted eyewear that allowed them to see creatures casting invisibility.

For some reason ponies had not thought of using scanning spells like those used by banks to check metals and other minerals for purity, to create machines or devices that printed, all books were made manually with printing presses and sometimes by hand, which made books much more expensive than back on earth. Something seemed fishy with this, was progress artificially stopped?

The spells to make something like a scanner printer were not too difficult, but required thinking outside the box, two spells and a caster, maybe they also lacked a way of making a processor to replace the caster, but... wouldn't magic also help with that?

The banker spell to prevent scams, when modified to look for ink instead of gold, could scan even a closed book directly, the spell was crude at first, making it impossible to cast for mom, but after I switched some runes around, and shortened the range of the scanning beam and adjusted the wavelength for optimal clarity of the ink itself, taking into account the number of pages and their order, the spell became easier to cast, going from tier 4 spell to tier 3, which allowed mom to use it, since she was limited to tier 3 spells for now, while I was at tier 4.

Thanks to the, more or less, unrestricted access to spells, I had however realized something, to be able to use spells of tier 5, I needed to be able to reach level 20, and that was going to be a problem, the only way to gain EXP was to kill, and it couldn't be something insignificant like ants or worms, I needed to kill creatures that had one of this characteristics: sapience or enough intelligence, high levels of emotion, physical power, high levels of magic, or a combination of those. If I killed magical monsters I could level up, as they had high levels of magic and physical power, some even had high intelligence.

This was because EXP was a combination of a creatures life energies, I was a sort of... a fuel powered generator, more or less, but for those creatures to relinquish their "fuel" to me, they had to die first, otherwise their being would hold onto that energy, and I would get nothing.

Normally, from what my extensive pony inspecting indicated, ponies leveled with age, at a rate between 0.5 and one level per year until they reached their prime, and from there it stopped, sometimes, rarely, a pony with a rare quirk, or as some would call it, a blessing, would be born, this ponies were usually great historical figures or heroes, they would level up twice per year instead until they reached their prime. For immortal beings, the leveling up would continue past their prime, but drastically slow down then, this is what I assumed from my brief inspection of Celestia, because I was sure she was older than 500, or even 800 years, so her leveling must have slowed down dramatically, or fully stopped at some point.

As for my affinity with magic, I was now the Adept rank and my spells were much stronger because of it, while before I could make small holes and even break off chunks of wood of the practice targets, now they have deep holes in them from my spells, ice spells have a chance to freeze wider areas and penetrate deeper into the wood, causing cracks in it to appear.

Back to what happened during this last five years, my friendship with Shining and the others grew a lot, we visited each others homes and had fun sleepovers, we always invited eachother for our birthday parties, we even went on several camping trips together with the parents tagging along, mom got along with everypony, specially Night Light and Twilight Velvet, and some even looked up at her once she told them about her job, she is now an officer, First Lieutenant Sylf by the way, after having studied for 4 extra years in the military academy, and served as a Royal Guard during all that time, the only bad side to this is that she barely was at home, and well... I missed her a lot sometimes, but thanks to my friends I wasn't lonely, much.

Speaking of friends, Shining Amor had grown a lot this few years, while I had grown bit to a smaller degree, I was now a head shorter than him and he made sure to remind me often, I honestly felt a bit frustrated by this, but at least I could easily do everyday activities despite my height by using Enlarge on myself, the perks of being a skilled mage, now the concentration that was almost impossible to maintain before, felt at most like remembering to hold something on your hand while walking, it came natural.

But more about my pony friend, turns out... He is having a little sister! He told me his mom's pregnant and they magically checked and he is having a little sister! I wonder if she could be somepony important in the future... Who knows right? He is very happy and wants to learn to be a good big brother, so he is practicing with me, by doing what? Play fights to learn to protect his future little sister, I happily comply and we do a bit of friendly wrestling, and while he is much stronger now, I am still stronger because of my stats being higher than his, even if it doesn't look like it from my shorter stature.

This doesn't mean he doesn't sometimes win, his longer legs allow him better leverage and sometimes I get put into angles I can't easily escape from, all in all we have a lot of fun together often, the other ponies in the group are really fun too, even if they don't really like to wrestle and play fight, we still play, tell jokes and even tickle fight eachother until we get out of breath.

Who would have thought that pony bellies and sides are so ticklish? They don't stand a chance against me, the tickle monster made manifest. Or so they say, their parents seem to find it really funny and adorable so they let me tickle their foals, then even join in at times, some ponies are a lot friendlier than others, and thankfully my friends have lovely parents who see me as just one of their kind, I couldn't have wished for better friends!

I have started elementary school this year, and to my surprise all my friends have signed up too, we decided to organize with our parents so they let us stay together, we all signed up to the Upper Canterlot Elementary, but it's usually just called UC Elementary, Upper Canterlot is just the name of the neighbor that's right outside the castle, technically the castle is higher but the castle has its own neighbor name called Canterlot Castle. It contains the barracks and other buildings more than the castle.

Now we are actually learning, while it's still, pretty basic stuff it's actually somewhat fun, topics I haven't really paid much attention to like history, geography and biology are fun to learn more about, specially the latter as our biology and of other species is really different from humans, for example how wings and horns of ponies work, how are they attached, the way veins and arteries supply then with blood, and all of this is very new to me, of course we don't go into that amount of detail but I later read some on the topics that get my attention.

For example the way ponies control the weather to make it more beneficial for themselves.

The way some weather is manufactured in a factory in cloudsdale to be perfect every time and to follow a schedule.

Artificial shorter winters and longer springs and summers, causing the cycle of nature to completely break and animals to end up requiring specialized ponies to wake them up from hibernation, so they don't starve as the winter ends early.

The different festivities and how they are celebrated, it's very similar to the show I watched as a human, but with much more logistics and thought put into it, this artificially short winter prevents some animals from living in Equestria outright, as the cold weather they need lasts too little.

Some animals are just not even present here, most predatory animals are just... Extinct in Equestria, and most herbivores are overabundant, even fed by ponies at times, it's very bizarre, a completely disregard for the natural cycle. Only a few animals seem to remain on the higher food chain, mostly are magical creatures like timberwolves and manticores who only really live in the Everfree, but there is also bears, eagles, lynxes, snakes, and some other small animals who don't pose much of a threat to ponies.

Where they bigger predators killed by the ponies? It wouldn't surprise me, maybe early on in their history they purged them or they went extinct on their own, or maybe they never existed. This world's biodiversity was very confusingly small in some aspects, maybe only here.

By the time I was done reminiscing about the past and thinking to myself, and reading the book it was already about 7pm, the sun was about to set, i decided to talk to mom when i saw her.

Mom is 27 years old, and she, like any other creature, be it pony or dragon, liked companionship, care and love, and with her job, she didn't have as much time with me as before, she had also stayed without a mate for a long time, probably forever since she had adopted me as his own son when she was 20. And I never saw her bring anypony home.
I honestly wanted her to find someone who she wanted to be with.

Mom didn't really think like ponies did, she told me she didn't want to be part of a herd, having to share a male with a lot of other mares didn't seem to be her thing, there were some ponies who also practiced monogamy, but they were rare, yet not unheard of, like for example Shining Armor's parents, Twilight Velvet and Night Light, now that I think about it, they did get along quite well with mom... But... No, she didn't really want that, this was frustrating, I wanted to help mom find a stallion, but what stallion would want a monogamous relationship? This was... Frustrating to say the least.

I got up to head home, but on the way I went by a pastry store and bought some freshly made vanilla eclairs, and a few chocolate filled croissants from a local bakery that had excellent quality.
Once I got home, I unlocked the door and headed inside, locking it behind me, headed to the kitchen and grabbed the box of culinary gemstones and sprinkled them over the pastries, then made myself some tea and headed to the table to eat.

After the delicious tea with sweets I wanted to go lay down so I headed to my room and climbed in bed in the dark, not realizing mom was there, I wanted to scream happily in excitement at her being home today, it had been a week since I last shared the bed with her!

But she was in a deep sleep so she probably was super tired from work, so I simply nuzzled and cuddled with her, wrapping my arms around her body and caressing her softly, she was so adorable like always, so precious and loving, her muscles were much more pronounced and defined now, her fur was softer from the treatment of shampoos and creams that ponies used, now she uses them too, and her scent was comfortingly familiar, new cologne? she smells very good...

Pressed myself against her more, purring in the odd way I did since I was little when I'm happy, in no time I fell asleep with my head on her fluffy chest, feeling the comforting slow and calm heartbeats.

The next day, POV shift Sylf, mostly her inner thoughts.

I woke up early, like every day before the sun was up, I was used to it, but I realized I was in my bed, not on the barracks room... blinking off the sleepyness I felt something tightly pressing against my chest, belly and between my hind legs, it felt comforting yet oddly cooling, but I enjoyed it, after looking down I could clearly see my precious son, tightly embracing me and sleeping away with a content smile, he looks so happy to be with his mom, and honestly so adorable too, I wanted to hug him and give him lots of kisses but that would wake him up.
I had good news for him! They had given me a week free from work, specifically to spend time with my son, it seems they gave ponies without a herd extra free time to look after their child if they have one, but for some reason since im not a pony, they didn't bother to tell me until I casually mentioned being single and having a small son, doesn't the crown have my data on their files?.

Which honestly would have pissed me off more if I wasn't being cuddled by the most adorable dragon ever!
He is bigger now, I bet in a few years he will reach his growth spurt and become an adolescent dragon, then he will grow his wings from what I've read about, I also read... Adolescent dragons are completely hormone driven, much more so than ponies at that age, and male dragons specifically are very... Let's just say eager...

I'm honestly unsure how we will deal with that, maybe his older human mind can somehow manage all those hormones and strong emotions? I really hope so, because otherwise he will need a mate... Or several... I probably shouldn't be thinking about this sort of things about my son, he is still very young, I'll make sure he keeps enjoying his foalhood until that time comes.

I should focus on myself now, should I try to find a mate? Nopony wants me, I think the species difference is too great, stallions are too intimidated, sure I've seen some mares look me over, and show some interest, but I don't swing that way... Which honestly is quite sad because I bet mares would make great cuddle partners too... Maybe I... do swing both ways?
I should not be so closed minded!
Should I just swallow my pride and join a herd? It's honestly a difficult choice...
But I will spend every single day of this week with my little dragon, he deserves more time with me, I know he used to be an adult, and I used that excuse to tell myself that it's okay, that he can be a few weeks without seeing me even once, but... It hurts, not only for him, but for me to be without him.

I feel my eyes start to get misty, my vision blurry as I silently cry while trying to not make noise, I've missed him so much! Being a guard takes so much time, it pays well, but it's painful for our family, a family of two... I think he doesn't deserve such a small family.
I know he has his friends, but... I've been a bad mother, I will talk to him about, for now I'll make breakfast for him... But he's not letting go...

I blushed a bit at the situation, he was stuck to me, hugging me in a vice grip stronger than usual... Wait why am I blushing? Am I in heat?!
I think this is usually the time of the month I go into heat during the year, could the heat have affected him? But he's... Really young!
Oh I better get up now! I-i think it is affecting him somewhat... Focus Sylf, focus, he's your son, he is seven and a half!

I slowly pry him away from me, his forelegs are much stronger than they look, he even has his claws out, and his hind legs are grabbing my tail... I gently push him with my hind leg, the oddly pleasant coolness of his body is gone, and I am back to feeling that uncomfortable and constant... heat.

Once he is removed I look at him and sigh with relief, I feel glad he isn't actually... Physically affected by my heat, his part is stored away inside him like it should be, good.

After the very awkward moment passes, and he is no longer able to cuddle me, he curls into a ball and continues to sleep, while I get up go to the bathroom to freshen up and head downstairs to cook breakfast, I'll make it extra tasty for him today as an apology and I may need to explain to him what all mares and other creatures go through during spring.

One hour later, Onyx POV

I wake up with the sunset, as the covers in the room are open, I stretch and yawn, rolling a bit around in the comfy bed, the bed has an alluring scent, mom's scent and something I can't quite place, but I know I've smelled it before, I shrug and just get up from bed, yawning more as I go and do my business in the bathroom, then walk downstairs where I smell breakfast, right, mom is here! A bounce in my step as i go into the dinner room, and mom is there waiting for me, I run to her and wrap her head in a tight hug, nuzzling her excitedly.

"Moommy I missed you so much! I'm so happy you're here! I wanted to thank you for all the effort and risk you went through for me, I've learned a lot!"
I see she is also happy to see me, but there's something on her mind, despite all the time she is absent, I can tell when there's something eating away at her.

"I missed you so much too my precious baby dragon! But I honestly feel like a bad mother for doing this to you, leaving you without me for so long... At this point you're mostly home alone than with me, and it's my fault... Look there are some things we need to talk about, but first you have to eat breakfast, so... Give me a minute I'll reheat it." Mom says with sadness in her voice. Then heads to the kitchen and puts the breakfast to reheat on the pan.

"O-okay mom... I hope you don't feel too bad about it, remember..." I switch to telepathy, you never know when someone is listening.

'I was a human before, you know I used to be a loner and I would spend a lot of time by myself, I'm used to it and it doesn't bother me like it bothers ponies... But I admit I do miss you when I go to sleep and you're not there, or in the mornings, or just at random sometimes, but now you're here! So it's all good right now, plus we need the money, our savings are nice and all, but... If you quit the guard job, our money would dry up in a few years of living here.' I say reassuring her.

'I know son... But maybe sometime we may have to move, I also wanted to talk to you about some other things, once you finish eating' I mentally acknowledged and continued eating, the breakfast was eggs over waffles with some sauteed mushrooms and cheese sauce, a variety of pickled veggies and a glass of grapefruit juice, I enjoyed it a lot, mom has learned to cook and her skills have not degraded even while at the guards barracks, she probably made some of the meals there or something.

After I was done I took the plate and she put it in the sink, I smiled at her and thanked her for that and we headed for the sofa together.

'So mom, whatcha wanna talk about? By the way, every since I came home yesterday evening, almost night, I've felt a really odd, but nice scent, it's... Odd because I smell you, but I also feel another scent that is like a... Some new cologne? It smells very good! Ohh wait a minute mom.... Are you... Dating somepony?' I ask in excitement and curiosity, wondering who it may be and what they are like.

Mom blushed at that, visibly blushed despite her dark black fur, I giggled, but she looked a bit embarrassed, I just hugged her and poked her hips, which usually didn't make her even react, but she jumped and let out a weird mixture between a sqeak and a moan, I laughed at that, she never had made that noise, and she was blushing more now, like if I had caught her with her paw in the cookie jar.

'Mooom what was that?! Are you suddenly ticklish? Haha you're in trouble then, I'm known as the tickle monster in my circles, so better watch out~' I said teasingly and winked at her, she put her paws on her face and tried to cover her blushing, I raised an eyebrow, she wasn't answering my silly jokes or even laughing, something was up... Definitively!

'Olay what's going on? Im a bit worried now mom, why are you all red faced and shy and mopey and jumpy? Can't be because of the new coltfriend is he that good?' after that i decided not to tease further and wait for her response.

A few minutes passed, as Sylf seemed to recover her confidence and her cheeks returned to their usual dark black, she looked at me with a worried expression.

'Im... In heat, I have been since this morning, I'm even unsure how you can even smell it, that new scent you are feeling are my pheromones, and so far you have only... Become slightly clingy last night, but it didn't go further than that thankfully, I'm sorry for not having told you before, I just... Forgot you would come by to sleep at night, it was stupid of me I know, but being in heat is a lot worse than it seems, the reason for my different mood and shyness, and even being so sensitive is because of it, do you know what I'm talking about my son? I'm sure humans heard of going into heat too, right?' she answers with a soft voice.

'Oh
...
I...
That explains a lot.
Look mom... I apologize, I was being all playful and teasing you without knowing how you were feeling...
You must be going through a lot of intense emotions and ups and downs, I think I should stop with the cuddles near your... Lower region then, I'm just used to have my face against your fluffy and warm chest, but now it's not a good time...' I felt honestly quite shocked, I had even... Forgotten she was a wolf, and wolves do go into strong heats, I suppose ponies do too, but how was I able to smell those pheromones? And why was I... At least partially affected? A mystery I would need to have in mind in the future, definitively, oh now I remembered what I wanted to ask from mom.

'Thank you for understanding my precious son! Try to not poke my hind legs, or sides or lower back, just don't tickle me please that would... Be bad' I nodded, feeling a bit guilty for my words now, but my mood wasn't ruined, I was happy to be with mom anyways, nothing can change that.

'Sure mom, now I wanted to ask, I want us to finish leveling up to level 20, and I'd really like to go find somewhere we can level up, how does the Everfree forest sound? I think with you by my side we will be unstoppable! Unless you're gonna be busy with guard work again...' I gave her puppy eyes and lowered my ears to look sad.

'Hmmm I do have a whole week free of work, and since you are lower level than me, I think it's a good idea to raise your level, we need to become stronger, we never know... When it will happen again. Okay I'm, but we will fight as a team, I take vanguard and you take the rear with your magic, understood?' she didn't ask, she ordered and she was very serious.

'Yes ma'am! I will keep the targets suppressed while you go into melee and finish them off, shall we go pack?' we both smiled at each other, this was gonna be a fun expedition.